IRLF 


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LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  Of     I 
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THOREAU 

HIS   HOME,   FRIENDS 
AND   BOOKS 


BY 

ANNIE    RUSSELL    MARBLE 

"Rather  than  love,  than  money,  than  fame, 
give  me  truth"  WALDEN 


Beto  pork 
THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL 

PUBLISHERS 


CO. 


Copyright,  1902 
By  Thomas  T.  Crowell  &  Co. 

Published  October,  1902 
|0AN  STACK 


TO  MT  HUSBAND 


007 


"  As  I  love  nature,  as  I  love  singing  birds,  and  gleaming 
stubble,  and  flowing  rivers,  and  morning  and  evening,  and  sum 
mer  and  winter,  I  love  thee,  my  Friend." 

A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack  Rivers. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGB 

I.    THOEEAU'S  CONCOED  AND  ITS  ENVIEONS 1 

II.    THE  THOEEAU  FAMILY 29 

III.  THE  YEAES  OF  PEEPAEATION 63 

IV.  THE  WALDEN  EXPEEIMENT 101 

V.    THE  YEAES  OF  EXPEESSION 141 

VI.  THOEEAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  AND  AET  OF  LIFE     .   .   .    181 

VII.    THOEEAU  AND  His  FEIENDS 215 

VIII.    THOEEAU  AS  NATUEALIST 259 

IX.  THOEEAU'S  SEEVICE  AND  RANK  IN  LITEEATUEE  .    .    295 

INDEX .337 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PHOTOGRAVURES 


PAGE 

HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU, (Frontispiece) 

FROM  NASHAWTUC  HILL, 6 

BIRTHPLACE  OF  THOREAU, 36 

WALDEN  POND,     .         .        .    _, 82 

SITE  OF  THOREAU'S  HOUSE,  WALDEN,        .        .        .        .     118 

THOREAU' s  MAIN  STREET  HOUSE, 149 

FURNITURE  USED  AT  WALDEN,     .        .        .        .        .        .     193 

EALPH  WALDO  EMERSON, 223 

HARRISON  GRAY  OTIS  BLAKE, 255 

FAIRHAVEN  BAY,          .        .        .        .        .        .  .268 

THOREAU'S  JOURNAL,   .        .  .        .        .        .  305 


(Photographs  obtained  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Alfred  Hosmer,  of 
Concord.) 


A  FOREWORD 

FORTY  years  have  now  passed  since  the  death 
of  Thoreau;  his  recognition  as  naturalist 
and  litterateur  had  gained  incipient  expression 
during  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  and  his 
memory  has  won  cumulative  interest  with  each 
decade.  During  the  last  five  years  the  enthusiastic 
study  of  nature,  exampled  both  in  schools  and 
home-circles,  has  extended  knowledge  of  Thoreau's 
writings  and  interest  in  his  unique  character  be 
yond  the  special  class  of  readers  who  represented, 
for  many  years,  his  clientele.  As  evidence  of  this 
widening  influence  are  the  frequent  sketches  and 
reminiscences  that  have  appeared  in  journals  of 
varied  scope.  Since  the  two  American  biographies 
by  his  friends,  Channing  and  Sanborn,  there  have 
been  issued  two  volumes  of  Thoreau's  letters,  three 
volumes  of  his  journal  extracts,  and  sundry  minor 
material  which  affords  new,  corrective  light  upon 
his  character  and  genius.  The  biography  by  the 
English  critic,  Mr.  Salt,  in  the  Great  Writers 
Series,  is  more  recent  and  interesting  yet  it  lacks 
certain  important  view-points.  Mr.  Sanborn's  latest 
study  of  the  personality  of  Thoreau  expands  or 


Vll 


viii  A  FOREWORD 

revises  many  of  the  earlier  statements  and  implica 
tions  but  it  seems  unlikely  to  reach  wide  circulation. 
Through  the  kindness  of  relatives  and  friends  of 
the  Thoreau  family,  there  have  been  loaned  for  this 
volume  some  letters  and  diaries  hitherto  guarded 
from  the  public.  Interviews  have  also  been  granted 
by  a  few  surviving  friends  of  Henry  and  Sophia 
Thoreau,  who  have  now  first  given  utterance  to 
certain  anecdotes  and  impressions.  To  Professor 
E.  Harlow  Kussell,  the  present  executor  of  the  Tho 
reau  manuscripts,  thanks  are  especially  due  for 
generous  encouragement  and  permission  to  photo 
graph  certain  pages  of  the  journals.  The  aim  of 
this  volume  has  been,  not  alone  to  embody  the 
facts,  recondite  and  familiar,  in  Thoreau's  life  and 
environment,  but  also  to  estimate  his  rank  and 
services  as  naturalist  and  author,  judged  by  the 
comparative  standards  of  this  new  century.  In 
illustrative  quotations  from  Thoreau's  own  pages, 
the  purpose  has  been  to  choose  less  familiar  pas 
sages,  for  a  careful  study  of  his  writings  has  dis 
covered  many  overlooked  and  self-revelatory 
sentences.  With  full  recognition  of  the  inadequacy 
of  the  result,  this  study  has  yet  proved  a  stimulant 
to  research  and  soul-uplift  unequaled  in  many 
years  of  literary  work. 

Worcester,  Massachusetts,  January,  1902. 


Thoreau's  Concord  and  its  Environs 


CHAPTEE   I 

THOREAU'S   CONCORD   AND   ITS   ENVIRONS 

THOEEAU  and  Concord  are  interdependent 
words ;  either  suggests  its  complement. 
The  meadows,  cliffs  and  wooded  hills,  the  inter 
linked  streams,  which  form  the  specific  landscape  of 
this  region,  have  been  stamped  by  Thoreau's  personal, 
even  proprietary,  seal.  In  early  recognition  of  this 
mystic  bond  he  wrote, — "Almost  I  believe  the 
Concord  would  not  rise  and  overflow  its  banks 
again,  were  I  not  here."  If  Thoreau's  writings 
are  photographs  of  the  town  and  its  contiguous 
scenery,  his  name  and  memory,  in  turn,  are  vivi 
fied  on  many  a  local  shrine.  The  visitor  to  Con 
cord  to-day,  even  as  he  leaves  the  station,  is 
attracted  by  the  sign,  "Thoreau  Street."  The 
larger  hotel  preserves  a  part  of  the  ancestral 
home  of  Thoreau's  family  and  until  recently,  this 
name  has  been  above  its  lintel.  In  Thoreau's  jour 
nal,  mention  is  made  of  seven  different  houses 
where  his  family  lived  at  sundry  periods,  and  one 
is  tempted  to  pause  before  any  residence  of  sug 
gestive  aspect  and  inquire,  "  Did  Thoreau  once 

3 


4  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

live  here?"  Some  of  these  family  homes  have 
been  removed  or  remodeled  but  others  remain, 
including  his  birthplace,  moved  from  its  original 
site,  and  his  last  home,  near  the  junction  of 
Thoreau  and  Main  streets. 

The  pervasive  atmosphere  of  his  memory  ex 
tends  through  the  town,  from  the  willow  banks 
of  the  Concord  river  to  the  woods  encircling 
Walden,  with  its  monumental  cairn  of  world- wide 
contributions.  Near  Emerson's  house  are  shade- 
trees  and  shrubs  planted  by  Thoreau.  He  also 
beautified,  with  locusts  and  fruit-trees,  the  ter 
raced  hillside  behind  Alcott's  "Orchard  House." 
On  the  very  summit  of  Kidge  Path  in  Sleepy 
Hollow,  overlooking  the  hills  and  meadows  which 
he  revered,  is  his  plain  memorial  stone.  Here,  as 
in  the  world  of  letters,  his  name  rests  beside 
Emerson,  Alcott,  and  Hawthorne.  While  Con 
cord  was  loved  by  this  trio  of  authors,  it  was  in 
no  case  an  exclusive  allegiance.  All  were  born 
elsewhere,  all  had  lived  long  in  other  places,  and 
all  had  visited  foreign  lands.  In  contrast  with 
their  broader  sympathies,  as  regards  locale,  was 
the  intense,  restrictive  devotion  of  Thoreau  to  the 
village  where  he  was  born,  where  he  spent  nearly 
all  his  life,  and  where  alone  he  was  able  to  develop 
and  disclose  his  true  character. 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  5 

It  would  be  difficult  to  example  elsewhere  in  lit 
erary  history  such  rapt  devotion  to  home-country. 
Scott  at  Abbotsford,  Kuskin  at  Brantwood,  Irving 
at  Sunnyside,  reveal  passionate  love  for  chosen 
landscape  but  these  were  residences  of  later  years  ; 
to  their  serenity  the  authors  returned  from  travels 
and  conflicts  amid  other  scenes.  Perhaps,  as  in 
other  phases  of  comparison,  one  is  here  reminded 
most  often  of  Wordsworth,  yet  the  peace  of  Rydal 
Mount  succeeded  years  of  troublous  excitement  and 
travel  on  the  continent.  Thoreau  was  an  aggres 
sive  promulgator  of  the  Emersonian  maxim, — 
"  Traveling  is  a  fool's  paradise."  On  return  from 
brief  and  few  excursions  into  regions  not  far  dis 
tant,  he  was  eager  to  reaffirm  the  beauties  and  bless 
ings  of  Concord.  Alcott  well  said, — "Thoreau 
thought  he  lived  in  the  centre  of  the  universe  and 
would  annex  the  rest  of  the  planet  to  Concord." 
It  was  the  mission  of  this  poet-lover  of  nature  to 
select  and  apotheosize  in  permanent  form  the  pic 
turesque  features  of  Concord  landscape  and  soil, 
and  to  bequeath  to  later  times  a  rare  example  of 
nature's  influence  as  incentive  to  the  purest,  loftiest 
ideals  of  life  and  the  most  varied  and  poetic  con 
cepts  in  literature.  Hawthorne  was  not  unjust  to 
the  scenery  of  Concord  and  its  vicinage  when  he 
affirmed  the  lack  of  any  marked  features  of  beauty 


6  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

or  grandeur,  though  he  recognized  that  upon  these 
hazy  meadows  "  the  heart  reposed  with  secure 
homeliness  "  amid  more  distinct  and  sublime  vistas. 
The  fine  villas  and  velvet  terraces,  which  now 
adorn  the  river-slopes,  belong  to  the  Concord  of 
to-day,  well-nigh  a  suburb  of  Boston,  and  were 
unknown  to  the  home-town  of  Hawthorne  and 
Thoreau. 

Placidity  is  the  most  pervasive  quality  of  the 
scenery  and  life  of  Concord.  It  offers  a  restful 
welcome  to  the  traveler  to-day,  even  as  it  gave  to 
the  sages  and  poets  who  became  its  residents  more 
than  sixty  years  ago.  Each  visit  awakens  gratitude 
that  these  early  literary  homes  are  allowed  to 
escape  the  fiends  of  demolition  or  improvement. 
The  Old  Manse  retains  the  quaint  duskiness  of  the 
days  of  Dr.  Eipley  and  Hawthorne ;  one  recalls  the 
latter's  apt  comment  that  to  desecrate  the  exterior 
with  a  coat  of  new  paint  would  seem  "  like  rouging 
the  venerable  cheeks  of  one's  grandmother."  The 
dun,  weather-browned,  tints  of  the  Orchard  House, 
merging  into  the  sombre  hillside,  remain  an  un 
changed  monument  to  Alcott's  memory  and  the 
heroic  efforts  of  his  daughter  to  provide  home- 
comforts  for  this  "  pathetic  family."  The  Thoreau- 
Alcott  house  is  still  "  the  Yellow  House,"  product 
in  part  of  Thoreau's  manual  skill,  and  surrounded 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  7 

by  pines  and  maples  of  his  grafting.  There  are 
few  places  where  the  entrance  of  the  trolley  seems 
more  inept,  if  not  sacrilegious,  than  in  Concord. 
"  Margaret  Sidney,"  a  loyal  daughter  of  later  Con 
cord,  has  said,  with  pleasing  truth  and  fancy  min 
gled, — "  When  all  things  shall  come  up  for  a  final 
adjustment  in  the  last  great  day  of  days,  it  seems 
that  Concord  might  be  gently  passed  by  and  al 
lowed,  amid  general  dissolution,  to  hold  herself  to 
gether  untouched.  .  .  .  With  a  not  unpleasing 
indifference  to  material  progress,  she  adjusts  her 
opinions  on  every  subject,  considers  this  adjustment 
final,  and  rests  by  her  river,  gentle,  sluggish,  per 
sistent  as  herself." 

The  river,  thus  fittingly  characterized,  is  the 
primal  element  in  the  landscape.  The  expanse  of 
meadow  and  bog  is  relieved  of  monotony  by  the 
tortuous,  interwoven  paths  of  the  Assabet  and  Sud- 
bury  rivers,  forming,  at  their  juncture,  the  Con 
cord.  Overgrown  with  grasses,  slowly  meandering 
past  the  town,  this  river  was  a  source  of  unfailing 
delight  to  Thoreau.  Guiding  his  boat  through  its 
tortuous  traces,  bathing  in  its  waters,  skating  over 
its  narrow  channel,  or  gathering  from  its  banks  and 
inlets  some  rare  aquatic  plants,  the  Concord  river  is 
associated  with  many  happy  hours  and  most  poetic 
pages.  He  usually  chose  its  Indian  name,  Musketa- 


8  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

quid,  the  grass-grown ;  he  symbolized  its  gradual 
ingress  and  slumber : 

11  The  river  swelleth  more  and  more, 
Like  some  sweet  influence  stealing  o'er 
The  passive  town  : ' ' 

*  *  *  *  * 

"No  ripple  shows  Musketaquid, 
Her  very  current  e'en  is  hid, 
As  deepest  souls  do  calmest  rest, 
When  thoughts  are  swelling  in  the  breast. 
And  she  that  in  the  summer's  drought 
Doth  make  a  ripple  and  a  rout, 
Sleeps  from  Nawshawtuck  to  the  Cliff, 
Unruffled  by  a  single  skiff." 

*  *  *  *  * 

11  Methinks  'twas  in  this  school  of  art 
Venice  and  Naples  learned  their  part." 

Secondary  to  the  river  and  its  rustic  bridges,  as 
elements  of  pictorial  beauty,  is  a  circlet  of  lakes, 
or  more  properly,  ponds,  all  familiar  to  Thoreau's 
readers,— Bateman's  Pond,  Flint's  Pond,  Goose 
Pond,  and  White  Pond,  "  the  lesser  twin  of  Wai- 
den."  By  the  banks  of  river  or  pond,  the  tourist 
seeks  the  hibiscus  or  marsillia,  or  waits  for  the  ap 
pearance  of  pickerel  or  bream,  whose  friendly  habits 
were  so  familiar  to  the  man  who  renounced  the 
role  of  angler  for  that  of  poet.  From  the  cliffs 
above  the  river,  Monadnock  and  Wachusett  are  out 
lined  in  the  distance,  while  in  the  foreground  are 
many  of  Thoreau's  favorite  walks.  Frequent  are  his 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  9 

journal  allusions  to  the  old  Carlisle  road,  the  tract 
of  swamp  and  woodland  to  the  northeast,  to  the  East- 
erbrook  Country,  farther  west,begirt  with  birches  and 
cedars  and  enticing  with  apple-orchards  and  berry 
pastures,  and  to  Nine  Acre  Corner  and  Fairhaven 
southward,  affording  unsurpassed  glories  of  sunset. 
The  winding  highway  towards  Sudbury  and  Marl- 
borough  has  a  special  charm,  for  it  was  his  chosen 
ramble.  He  once  wrote  in  fanciful  analogy, — "  the 
pathway  towards  heaven  lies  south  or  southwest 
along  the  old  Marlborough  Koad."  In  lighter, 
buoyant  tone,  in  the  essay  on  "  Walking,"  he  in 
cluded  the  stanzas  on  this  favorite  expanse  of 
country : 

"  When  the  spring  stirs  my  blood 
With  the  instinct  to  travel, 
I  can  get  enough  gravel 
On  the  old  Marlborough  Road. 
Nobody  repairs  it, 
For  nobody  wears  it ;  " 
***** 

"  If  with  fancy  unfurled 
You  leave  your  abode, 
You  may  go  round  the  world 
By  the  Old  Marlborough  Road." 

The  pines  enclosing  Walden,  and  the  Lincoln 
woods  beyond,  form  picturesque  background  to  the 
Concord  meadows.  Sauntering  thither  from  the 
town,  along  the  red,  sandy  road,  past  Laurel  Glen 


10  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

and  Brister's  Hill,  the  reader  of  Thoreau  notes  the 
varieties  of  willows,  pines,  and  maple  keys,  listens 
to  the  notes  of  veery,  bluebird,  or  pewee,  or 
watches  a  gay  chipmunk  in  his  gallop  over  the 
trees.  Hickories  and  pines  still  form  close  barri 
cade  around  the  little  lake  of  Walden,  though  the 
woods  are  more  sparse  than  when  Thoreau  threaded 
their  mazes.  Sundry  footpaths  all  verge  towards 
the  cairn,  witnessing  its  thousand  yearly  visitors. 
A  hundred  rods  away,  the  modern  pavilions  of  a 
pleasure  park  have  detracted  from  the  beauty  and 
sacred  peace  of  this  nature-shrine. 

Such  are  some  of  the  scenes  visited  by  pilgrims, 
not  because  Concord  contains  rare  historical  monu 
ments  alone,  nor  yet  in  memory  of  her  sage  and 
romancer,  but  because  they  have  been  immortalized, 
"  covered  with  suitable  inscriptions,"  by  the  hand 
of  Thoreau.  As  naturalist,  he  has  revealed  the 
hidden  secrets  of  flora,  wood-fibre,  and  bird-life 
throughout  the  Concord  region  with  a  completeness 
and  poetry  unsurpassed.  As  man,  he  found  pleas 
ure  in  the  free,  agrarian  life  of  his  birth-town  and 
it  is  fitting  to  recall  briefly  the  social  and  political 
environment.  Concord  of  to-day  is  about  twice  as 
large  in  population  as  the  village  of  Thoreau's 
records.  In  active  life,  however,  it  is  hardly  less 
somnolent  than  fifty  years  ago,  for  it  was  then  the 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  ll 

shire-town  and  the  direct  trade-mart  for  farmers 
and  lumbermen  en  route  from  New  Hampshire  to 
Boston.  Through  Concord  passed  stages  for  Bos 
ton,  Lowell  and  Framingham ;  the  four  taverns 
were  well  patronized  in  those  earlier  decades  when 
toddy  was  a  symbol  of  hospitality  not  of  ine 
briety.  With  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  lacking 
the  luxuries  of  modern  houses,  the  people  developed 
that  sturdy,  self-reliant  endurance  which  character 
ized  the  best  New  England  communities.  If  the 
sheets  froze  about  their  faces  on  cold  nights,  as 
Thoreau  related,  and  a  drop  of  water  from  the 
pitcher  at  once  congealed  upon  the  floor,  yet  they 
possessed  that  vigor  of  body  and  soul  which  is  fos 
tered  by  hardihood,  not  indulgence.  Around  the 
wide  fireplace,  they  gathered  with  zest  for  leisurely, 
earnest  conversation,  when  the  evening  came,  a 
happiness  too  little  known  in  these  later  days  of 
over-heated  houses  and  hurried  gossip  of  the  hour. 

The  old-time  farms,  with  their  hospitable  inmates, 
the  Arcadian  homesteads  of  the  Minotts,  the  Bar 
retts,  the  Hosmers,  formed  the  nucleus  of  Thoreau's 
domestic  pictures.  During  his  encampment  at 
"Walden,  he  visited  his  farmer-friends  almost  every 
day  or  lingered  at  the  few  village  homes  where  he  was 
most  welcome.  With  a  touch  of  keen  insight,  mixed 
with  humor,  he  describes,  in  "  Walden,"  the  typical 


12  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

village  street,  its  interests,  and  its  residents :  "  I 
observed  that  the  vitals  of  the  village  were  the 
grocery,  the  bar-room,  the  post-office  and  the  bank  ; 
and,  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  machinery,  they 
kept  a  bell,  a  big  gun,  and  a  fire  engine  at  con 
venient  places,  and  the  houses  were  so  arranged  as 
to  make  the  most  of  mankind,  in  lanes  and  fronting 
one  another,  so  that  every  traveler  had  to  run  the 
gauntlet,  and  every  man,  woman,  and  child  might 
get  a  lick  at  him.  Of  course,  those  who  were 
stationed  nearest  to  the  head  of  the  line,  where 
they  could  most  see  and  be  seen,  and  have  the  first 
blow  at  him,  paid  the  highest  prices  for  their 
places ;  and  the  few  straggling  inhabitants  in  the 
outskirts,  where  long  gaps  in  the  line  began  to 
occur,  and  the  traveler  could  get  over  walls  or  turn 
aside  into  cow-paths,  and  so  escape,  paid  a  very 
slight  ground  or  window  tax.  Signs  were  hung  out 
on  all  sides  to  allure  him ;  some  to  catch  him  by  the 
appetite  as  the  tavern  or  victualing  cellar ;  some  by 
the  fancy,  as  the  dry-goods  store  or  the  jeweler's ; 
and  others  by  the  hair,  the  feet,  or  the  skirts,  as  the 
barber,  the  shoemaker,  or  the  tailor.  Besides  there 
was  a  still  more  terrible  standing  invitation  to  call 
at  every  one  of  these  houses,  and  company  expected 
about  these  times.  For  the  most  part  I  escaped 
wonderfully  from  these  dangers,  either  by  proceed- 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  13 

ing  at  once  boldly  and  without  deliberation  to  the 
goal,  as  is  recommended  to  those  who  run  the 
gauntlet,  or  by  keeping  my  thoughts  on  high  things 
like  Orpheus,  who,  <  loudly  singing  the  praises  of 
the  god  to  his  lyre,  drowned  the  voices  of  the 
Sirens,  and  kept  out  of  danger.'  Sometimes,  I 
bolted  suddenly,  and  nobody  could  tell  my  where 
abouts,  for  I  did  not  stand  much  about  gracefulness, 
and  never  hesitated  at  a  gap  in  a  fence.  I  was  even 
accustomed  to  make  an  irruption  into  some  houses, 
where  I  was  well  entertained,  and  after  learning  the 
kernels  and  the  very  last  sieveful  of  news,  what  had 
subsided,  the  prospects  of  war  and  peace,  and 
whether  the  world  was  likely  to  hold  together 
much  longer,  I  was  let  out  through  the  rear 
avenues,  and  so  escaped  to  the  woods  again." 

To  Thoreau's  lifelong  devotion,  as  to  the  present- 
day  visitor,  Concord  represents  far  more  than  a 
rich  botanical  region  or  a  serene  village  of  happy 
farmlands  and  mild  trade.  While  Thoreau  lingered 
fondly  upon  the  topography,  he  often  recalled  the 
landmarks  of  Concord  history,  from  that  early  set 
tlement  by  Peter  Bulkeley  in  1635,  whose  Concord 
with  the  Indian  chief,  Tahatawan,  is  still  commemor 
ated  by  the  tablet  on  the  Lowell  Eoad,  under  "  Jethro's 
Oak."  Among  Thoreau's  "  Familiar  Letters,"  edited 
by  Mr.  Sanborn,  none  exceed  in  interest  that  written 


14  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

to  his  brother  in  1837,  under  guise  of  "Tahatawan, 
to  his  brother  sachem,  Hopewell  of  Hopewell."  It 
preserves  the  dialect  and  superstitious  phrases  of 
Indian  epistles,  and  abounds  in  deft,  droll  allusions 
to  both  traditions  of  the  primeval  settlers  and  also 
to  current  political  and  social  incidents. 

In  the  days  of  anti-slavery  conflict,  Thoreau  often 
appealed  to  his  townsmen  for  a  revival  of  that  spirit 
of  resistance  to  oppression  and  wrong,  which  had 
given  to  the  name  of  Concord  primal  rank  in  the 
making  of  independent  American  history.  His  own 
ancestors  were  buried  on  the  hillside,  hard  by  the 
powder-house  and  site  of  the  liberty  pole,  and  close 
to  the  graves  of  Major  Buttrick  and  his  heroes  of  that 
immemorial  April  day  of  1775.  Opposite  was  the 
old  Unitarian  church,  where  the  Provincial  Con 
gress  had  convened  in  1774.  At  the  Old  North 
Bridge,  where  nature  seems  at  her  apogee  of  peace 
ful  beauty,  had  already  been  erected  the  first 
monument  to  Concord  valor.  As  her  men  had 
enrolled  themselves  upon  the  side  of  right  and 
liberty  in  the  earlier  struggle,  so  again  she  took 
preeminent  part  in  behalf  of  free  speech  and 
defiance  to  any  laws  which  openly  or  covertly 
favored  slavery.  Here  centred  vital  thoughts  and 
acts  at  the  time  of  John  Brown's  martyrdom.  To 
Concord,  though  it  was  not,  as  has  been  averred,  a 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  15 

station  on  the  underground  railway,  came  fugitive 
slaves,  to  receive  aid  from  Alcott,  Emerson,  San- 
born  and  members  of  the  Thoreau  family.  Concord 
welcomed  lecturers  and  reformers  of  radical  type 
during  the  crucial  years  of  the  mid-century.  At 
the  Concord  Town-Hall  in  1857,  John  Brown  made 
his  famous  plea ;  thence  he  set  forth  on  his  fatal 
mission ;  here  kind  attentions  were  later  given  to 
his  family. 

Always  active  alike  in  movements  of  reform  and 
of  education,  the  little  town  possessed  a  rare  men 
tality  and  her  efforts  to  increase  true  culture  mark 
the  beginnings  of  the  great  revival  of  social  and 
educational  life  in  New  England.  The  mental 
lethargy  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century  had  resulted  in  narrow  adherence  to  fixed 
tenets  and  customs  in  religion  and  society,  with  a 
corresponding  self-satisfaction,  which  often  hid  real 
ignorance  and  was  always  fatal  to  creative  advance 
along  intellectual  and  educational  lines.  The  move 
ments  towards  freedom  in  thought  and  religion, 
exampled  in  Unitarianism  and  Transcendentalism, 
found  many  earnest  disciples  in  Concord,  men  and 
women  ever  eager  to  know  the  truth  in  its  free 
fulness.  Among  pioneer  towns,  she  established 
higher  schools,  Atheneum  and  Reading  Room, 
Mutual  Improvement  Society  and  the  Lyceum, 


16  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

which  brought  thither  some  of  the  most  famous 
orators  of  that  day  when  the  orator  was  fast  super 
seding  the  clergyman  as  exponent  of  intellect  and 
politics.  During  Thoreau's  manhood,  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  increased,  with  its  digressive 
themes  for  bitter  dispute,  and  the  Lyceum,  here  as 
elsewhere,  prohibited  for  a  time  all  allusions  to 
"  religious  or  political  controversy,  or  other  exciting 
topics  upon  which  the  public  mind  is  honestly 
divided."  In  Concord,  where  Emerson  was  curator 
of  the  Lyceum,  a  long  and  ultimately  victorious 
battle  was  waged  against  these  limits  to  free 
speech.  Among  some  unpublished  letters,  granted 
for  use  in  this  volume,  is  one  written  by  Thoreau's 
elder  sister,  Helen,  which  refers  to  this  matter  and 
gives  a  vivid  picture  of  Concord's  life  during  these 
years  of  political  and  intellectual  revolution. 

"  CONCOED,  April  27,  ISlfi. 

"  DEAE  Miss : 

"  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  the  nice  long 
letter  you  sent  by  Henry  in  return  for  my  little 
note,  and  also  to  remind  you  of  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society  at  the  Tabernacle 
in  New  York  on  the  6th  of  May.  You  must  not 
fail  to  attend  and  I  hope  to  meet  you  at  the  New 
England  Convention.— Aunt  Maria  has,  I  suppose, 
kept  you  informed  of  our  controversy  with  the 
Lyceum,  a  Hard  battle  but  Victory  at  last.  Next 
winter  we  shall  have  undoubtedly  a  free  Lyceum. 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  17 

Mr.  Emerson  says  that  words  cannot  express  his 
admiration  of  Mr.  Phillips'  lecture.  Did  you  re 
ceive  the  paper  containing  Henry's  article  about 
it  ?  I  am  glad  that  you  like  the  Hutchinsons.  One 
of  our  meetings  last  May  was  closed  with  their 
Emancipation  Song, — the  whole  audience  rising 
and  joining  in  the  last  huzza. 

"I  long  to  see  you  in  Concord  again.  We 
always  have  something  stirring  here.  Aunt  M. 
will,  of  course,  tell  you  all  the  news.  Remember 
me  to  your  brother  and  sister  and  believe  me  ever 
yours, 

«  HELEN." 

When  Emerson,  in  1834,  came  to  his  ancestral 
town,  to  mingle  a  poet's  coveted  quiet  with  delight 
in  intellectual  and  congenial  society,  new  impetus 
was  given  to  the  freedom  and  culture  already 
existent  in  Concord,  and  a  literary  fame  was  added, 
which  the  writings  of  Thoreau,  Hawthorne,  Alcott, 
and  his  daughter  were  destined  to  augment.  Like 
nearly  all  New  England  towns  of  sixty  years  ago, 
Concord  was,  in  aim,  liberal  and  democratic  in  social 
and  educational  affairs,  yet  she  maintained  rigidly 
certain  traditions  and  exclusions.  Emerson's  resi 
dence,  bringing  hither  poets,  philosophers,  orators 
and  reformers,  of  all  social  grades,  acted  somewhat 
as  a  social  leveler  and  largely  eliminated  that 
aristocratic  coldness  so  prevalent  elsewhere  in  New 
England.  Concord  retained,  and  justly,  pride  in 
her  family  names  of  renown ;  to  her  venerable 


l8  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

"  Social  Circle  "  only  Emerson  among  her  authors 
was  admitted  in  membership;  yet  the  influences 
towards  free  thought  and  literary  expression  ena 
bled  her  to  recognize  intellect  and  genius  of  varied 
kinds,  apart  from  all  exclusive  social  rank.  In 
evitably  there  were  occasions  when  family  pride 
dominated  broader  impulses  but,  in  the  main,  this 
town,  which  won  Thoreau's  persistent  devotion, 
represented  hardy,  and  kindly,  democracy.  Sena 
tor  George  F  .Hoar,  a  member  of  the  family  of  high 
est  social  rank,  in  recalling  the  memories  of  his  boy 
hood  in  Concord,  says:  "The  people,  old  and 
young,  constituted  one  great  family.  .  .  .  They 
esteemed  each  other  because  of  personal  character, 
and  not  on  account  of  wealth,  or  holding  office." 
As  a  courageous  and  progressive  individual  is 
likely  to  receive  misinterpretation  from  his  inert 
neighbor,  content  with  the  laissez-faire  principles 
of  society,  so  a  community  that  takes  precedence 
in  reform  or  education  is  sure  to  win  envious  and 
dubious  comment.  An  older  inhabitant  of  Concord 
recalls  that,  during  these  years  of  agitated  politics 
and  seething  reforms  in  philosophy  and  literature, 
the  outside  world  regarded  Concord  people  "as 
very  queer."  Emerson,  in  his  journal,  records  the 
mixed  pride  of  the  place  where  visited  Everett  and 
Webster,  Garrison  and  Phillips,  Bancroft  and 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  19 

"Whittier,  and  where  also  came  "  shows  and  proces 
sions,  conjurors  and  bear-gardens,  and  even  Herr 
Driesbach  with  cats  and  snakes." 

The  atmosphere  of  Concord  during  Thoreau's  life 
was  stimulative  to  free,  earnest  speculation  on  life 
and  was  instinct  with  simple,  noble  ideals  and  pur 
poses.  It  was  fitted  to  produce  men  of  unusual 
genius  in  literature  and  independence  in  character, 
whose  words  and  acts  might  savor  of  unconvention- 
ality  but  whose  influence  fostered  purity,  reform, 
and  true  culture.  Much  has  been  written  of  the 
famous  men  who  have  immortalized  Concord  but 
inadequate  praise  has  been  given  to  the  coterie  of 
noble,  brilliant  women  of  these  families  of  renown. 
Madam  Emerson,  with  due  priority  of  rank,  is  best 
described  by  her  grandson's  words, — "  a  serene  and 
beautiful  presence  in  the  household,"  whose  cham 
ber  became  a  sanctuary.  Nobly  had  she  triumphed 
over  tragic  losses,  poverty,  and  sickness  ;  educating, 
with  rare  wisdom,  her  five  boys,  she  lived  to  share 
the  home  and  honor  of  her  most  famous  son.  Mrs. 
Lidian  Emerson  added  to  wonderful  beauty  of  face, 
mind  and  soul,  the  sagacity  and  helpfulness  of  the 
best  womanhood.  She  could  bear  her  part  in 
philosophical  discussions  and,  at  the  same  time, 
preserve  the  graciousness  of  an  ideal  mother  and 
hostess.  Mrs.  Alcott,  of  the  famous  May  family, 


20  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

had  the  dramatic,  vigorous  intellect  reflected  in  her 
daughter's  stories.  She  was  always  efficient,  sym 
pathetic,  brave,  through  a  life  that  would  have 
crushed  or  embittered  any  ordinary  woman.  Never 
swerving  in  practical  devotion  to  her  philosopher- 
husband,  with  his  idealistic  fancies  which  constantly 
proved  futile  for  family  support,  she  and  her  daugh 
ters  must  have  realized,  from  years  of  patient  en 
durance,  Louisa  Alcott's  famous  definition  of  a 
philosopher, — "a  man  up  in  a  balloon,  with  his 
family  and  friends  holding  the  ropes  which  confine 
him.  to  earth  and  trying  to  haul  him  down." 

The  spiritual  Sophia  Peabody  Hawthorne,  with 
artistic  and  poetic  tastes,  always  guarding  her  hus 
band  from  a  prurient  world,  exerted  a  subtle  in 
fluence  upon  the  Concord  circle.  Ellen  Fuller,  wife 
of  the  eccentric  poet,  Channing, — last  survivor  of 
this  early  literary  group, — and  her  more  famous 
sister,  Margaret  Fuller,  contributed  to  the  free  in 
tellectuality  of  the  town.  Elizabeth  Hoar,  with  a 
mind  of  great  breadth  and  beauty,  wielded  a  strong 
influence  for  culture  and  democracy  through  her 
own  personality  and  her  family  name.  The  wife  and 
daughters  of  Edmund  Hosmer  well  typified  those 
early  families  of  husbandry  in  which  mental  life 
received  marked  expansion.  Mrs.  Cheney,  the 
friend  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  her  beautiful  home  on 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  21 

the  river-slope,  was  the  hostess  of  many  famous 
visitors  from  the  political  and  social  ranks.  Mrs. 
Thoreau  and  her  daughters,  no  less  than  her  sisters 
and  her  husband's  sisters,  had  assured  places  among 
the  Concord  women  who  contributed  large  measure 
to  the  mental  prestige  of  the  town.  Like  other 
women  of  this  transcendental  age  and  circle,  they 
were  often  harassed  by  severe  anxieties,  for  to  their 
prudent,  sagacious  brains  were  relegated  many 
problems  of  domestic  economy.  "  Plain  living  and 
high  thinking,"  a  spiritual  preference  to  their  hus 
bands,  became  a  practical  necessity  to  these  women, 
that  they  might  preserve  the  health  of  their  chil 
dren  and,  at  the  same  time,  maintain  their  own 
mental  poise. 

Among  these  noted  and  noble  women,  though 
somewhat  isolated  from  them,  was  Miss  Mary 
Emerson,  the  aunt  of  the  philosopher-poet.  She 
delighted  to  link  herself  with  the  past  by  recalling 
that,  when  she  was  eight  months  old,  she  was  held 
at  the  window  of  the  Old  Manse  to  watch  the  Con 
cord  fight  in  the  meadow  below.  Among  Concord 
families,  her  eccentricity  as  well  as  her  intellectual 
vigor,  survive  in  memories.  During  early  life  she 
prepared  a  white  burial  shroud  and,  as  the  occasion 
failed  to  demand  its  use,  she  afterwards  often  wore 
it  upon  the  street  and  in  the  house.  Such  independ- 


22  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

ence,  mingled  with  a  rigidity  that  knew  not  humor, 
and  a  severe  opinion  of  changing  fashions,  may 
well  explain  the  interview  recorded  by  Mr.  San- 
born,  between  Miss  Emerson  and  Mrs.  Thoreau. 
The  latter,  even  as  her  life  lengthened,  was  fond  of 
new  and  becoming  dress ;  on  this  occasion,  she  in 
curred  a  severe  rebuke  from  Miss  Emerson  for 
wearing  bonnet  ribbons  of  bright  hue,  "  so  unsuit 
able  for  a  child  of  God  and  a  person  of  your  years." 
Miss  Emerson,  despite  personal  oddities,  due  in  part 
to  a  rigid  training  and  lonely  life,  was  a  woman  of 
fine  mind.  Her  nephew  acknowledged  her  lasting 
influence  upon  his  formative  years.  Well  did  he 
example  her  favorite  maxims  often  given  to  him  in 
letters, — "  Lift  your  aims." — "  Scorn  trifles."  In 
Thoreau,  Miss  Emerson  always  took  great  interest 
and  their  intellectual  sympathy  has  been  iterated 
in  his  journal.  In  one  place,  under  date,  Novem 
ber  13,  1851,  he  writes, — "  Just  spent  a  couple  of 
hours  with  Miss  Mary  Emerson ;  the  wittiest  and 
most  vivacious  woman  I  know,  certainly  that 
woman  among  my  acquaintances  whom  it  is  the 
most  profitable  to  meet,  the  least  frivolous,  who  will 
most  surely  provoke  to  good  conversation.  .  .  . 
I  never  talked  with  any  other  woman  who,  I 
thought,  accompanied  me  so  far  in  describing  a 
poetic  experience." 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  23 

In  varied  ways  the  Thoreau  family  received  due 
quota  of  stimulus  from  these  conditions  and,  in 
turn,  contributed  to  the  civic,  intellectual  and  social 
activity  of  Concord.  Probably  no  household  found 
greater  delight  in  studying  nature,  in  fostering  the 
educative  and  sanative  effects  of  outdoor  life,  when 
such  interests  were  scantily  encouraged.  To  all 
movements  for  reform  and  betterment,  they  gave 
zealous  service.  While  Henry  Thoreau,  by  his  pe 
culiar  temperament  and  deep  earnestness,  was 
separated  from  some  social  phases  of  Concord  life 
yet  a  recognition  of  its  opportunities  and  influence 
tinctured  all  his  writings.  His  aspirations  for  his 
home-village  reached  an  acme  of  ideality  in  the 
plan,  outlined  in  "  Walden,"  for  a  university,  in  a 
new,  broad  sense,  with  Concord  as  its  centre.  The 
scheme  was  nebulous  yet  it  revealed  foresight  and 
strong  optimism.  Possibly,  the  plan  may  have 
been  suggested  by  the  historical  fact  that  twice  in 
the  history  of  Harvard  College,  during  times  of 
danger  in  the  Kevolution,  the  faculty  and  students 
had  migrated  to  Concord  and  there,  for  several 
weeks,  had  left  the  intellectual  and  vivacious  marks 
of  a  college  atmosphere.  Some  of  Thoreau's  ideas, 
mystic  and  iconoclastic  then,  have  been  embodied 
in  the  aims  of  modern  culture,  and  have  found  ex 
pression  in  progressive  clubs  in  scores  of  American 


24  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

towns  and  villages.  It  may  not  be  superfluous  to 
recall  a  few  of  his  suggestions  in  the  third  chapter 
of  "  Walden  "  ; — "  It  is  time  that  we  had  uncommon 
schools,  that  we  did  not  leave  off  our  education 
when  we  begin  to  be  men  and  women.  It  is  time 
that  villages  were  universities,  and  their  elder  in 
habitants  the  fellows  of  universities,  with  leisure — 
if  they  are  indeed  so  well  off — to  pursue  liberal 
studies  the  rest  of  their  lives.  Shall  the  world  be 
confined  to  one  Paris  or  one  Oxford  forever  ?  Can 
not  students  be  boarded  here  and  get  a  liberal 
education  under  the  skies  of  Concord  ?  If  we  live 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  why  should  we  not  enjoy 
the  advantages  which  the  nineteenth  century  offers  ? 
Why  should  our  lives  be  in  any  respect  provincial  ? 
Let  the  reports  of  all  the  learned  societies  come  to 
us  and  we  will  see  if  they  know  anything.  New 
England  can  hire  all  the  wise  men  in  the  world  to 
come  and  teach  her,  and  board  them  round  the 
while,  and  not  be  provincial  at  all."  Perchance  it  is 
not  strange  that  some  of  Thoreau's  contemporaries, 
failing  to  recognize  in  this  aspiration  an  outgrowth 
of  pride  and  love  for  Concord  and  America,  which 
she  symbolized  to  him,  resented  such  bald  accusa 
tions  of  provincialism.  Such  words,  however,  were 
needed  to  incite  the  educational  and  literary  nas- 
cence  in  America  during  the  last  half-century. 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  25 

No  place  other  than  Concord  could  be  so  fittingly 
identified  with  Thoreau's  personality.  The  varied 
and  prodigal  forms  of  nature  allured  him  to  become 
her  poet  and  naturalist.  The  independence  and 
virility  of  intellectual  life  awakened  his  speculative 
mind  to  search  for  a  new  philosophy  of  living.  The 
literary  impulse  of  the  town  fostered  innate  love 
for  letters  and  encouraged  him  to  preserve  thoughts 
on  nature  and  humanity  destined  to  bring  fame  to 
his  loved  "  Borne."  Born,  bred,  and  tested  amid 
such  environment,  his  inherited  traits,  to  be  noted 
in  the  next  chapter,  reached  full  development  and 
created  a  personality  unique  in  American  literature. 
As  he  immortalized  Concord  scenery  and  products, 
so,  in  turn,  was  his  strange  and  plastic  genius 
evolved  by  her  intellectual  activity.  In  an  address 
at  the  dedication  of  the  Concord  Public  Library  in 
1873,  Emerson  well  summarized  these  varied  bonds 
which  identified  Thoreau  with  his  parental  town. 
These  words,  among  the  later  public  utterances  of 
Emerson,  have  escaped  the  use  of  Thoreau's  biog 
raphers.  The  sentences  of  possible  reproach  and 
disappointment,  spoken  or  written  about  Thoreau 
by  this  first  teacher  and  friend  of  renown,  have  been 
widely  quoted  and  often  misconstrued.  It  is  fitting 
that  these  later  sentences  of  frank,  careful  analysis 
should  also  be  recorded,  as  testimony  to  the  mutual 


26  THOREAU'S  CONCORD 

pride  existent  between  Thoreau  and  Concord: 
"Henry  Thoreau  we  all  remember  as  a  man  of 
genius  and  of  marked  character,  known  to  our 
farmers  as  the  most  skilful  of  surveyors,  and  indeed 
better  acquainted  with  their  forests  and  meadows 
and  trees  than  themselves,  but  more  widely  known 
as  the  writer  of  some  of  the  best  books  which  have 
been  written  in  this  country  and  which,  I  am  per 
suaded,  have  not  yet  gathered  half  their  fame.  He 
too,  was  an  excellent  reader.  No  man  would  have 
rejoiced  more  than  he  in  the  event  of  this  day." 

While  Thoreau  was  concerned  for  the  civic  purity 
and  the  political  and  educational  freedom  and  prog 
ress  of  his  natal  town,  which  seemed  to  him  the 
microcosm  of  the  nation,  while  he  was  a  prophet, 
preaching  the  purification  and  simplification  of  in 
dividual  life,  such  aspirations  were  sequential  from 
his  life-theme,  Nature.  He  found  her  enshrined  in 
his  home-country  and  he  became  her  seer ;  here  he 
interpreted  her  messages  and  proclaimed  her  in 
spiration  as  motor-power  in  noblest  living.  To  him 
no  theme  could  be  more  free,  more  exhaustive,  more 
satisfying.  The  pines  with  their  fragrant  aroma 
and  their  harmonious  soughing,  the  wayside  ferns 
and  flowers,  bird-friends  and  insect  neighbors,  the 
season's  glorious  tints  on  the  hill-slopes  and  in  the 
valleys,  the  easeful  beauty  of  river  and  ponds, — all 


THOREAU'S  CONCORD  27 

these  features  of  Concord  have  been  so  magnetized 
in  his  unfolding  that  one  realizes  he  fulfilled  his 
aim,—"  Here  I  have  been  these  forty  years  learning 
the  language  of  these  fields  that  I  may  the  better 
express  myself." 


The  Thoreau  Family 


CHAPTEE  II 

THE  THOKEAU  FAMILY 

THE  cumulative  fame  of  Thoreau  among  critics 
has  been  due  to  his  pioneer  services  as  nat 
uralist,  his  strange  literary  revelations,  and  his 
unique,  pervasive  philosophy  of  living;  the  chief 
interest  of  the  public,  however,  has  centred  about 
his  eccentric  personality  and  the  few  dramatic 
events  of  his  brief  life.  There  is  no  passport  more 
sure  to  arouse  curiosity  than  non-conformity,  or 
marked  courage  of  thought  and  action.  A  man  or 
woman  who,  defying  conventionality,  dares  to  make 
a  law  of  conduct  unto  himself,  however  desirous  he 
may  be  to  avoid  publicity  and  live  simply,  has  al 
ready  assured  himself  of  passing,  if  not  permanent, 
attention.  This  interest  may  be  cheap  notoriety,  it 
is  too  often  won  by  a  charlatan  rather  than  a  sin 
cere  reformer,  yet  the  public  easily  confuses  these 
two  types  of  men,  during  the  primal  stages  of  re- 
vealment.  Thoreau,  as  boy  and  man,  had  absolute 
sincerity  and  persistence  to  live  his  principles,  yet 
from  his  early  manhood  until  now  he  has  been  the 
victim  of  misinterpretation,  both  unconscious  and 


32  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

intentional.  He  has  been  called  a  Cagliostro,  a 
Diogenes,  a  Simeon  Stylites ;  he  has  been  caricatured 
as  another  Yankee  Barnum  with  a  show  of  personal 
oddities  for  cheap  effect.  His  occasional  acts  have 
been  widely  exploited,  while  his  basal  traits  have 
been  ignored.  Few  men  of  letters  have  had  so 
many  interpreters  and  critics ;  few  have  suffered  so 
much  distortion. 

Alcott,  who  loved  Thoreau  with  gentle  trust  and 
who  recognized  his  qualities  with  keener  insight 
than  was  his  wont,  happily  united  the  words, 
"  sylvan  and  human,"  in  his  brief  analysis  of  his 
friend's  nature.  Thoreau's  traits  readily  yield 
themselves  to  paradox.  A  primal  delight  in  wild, 
rank  nature  was  combined  with  a  rare  fineness  of 
sense  and  intellect.  A  stoical  self-control  and  com 
placency  coexisted  with  a  supersensitive  and  tender 
heart  towards  all  forms  of  life.  A  keen  inventive 
and  manual  skill,  with  much  practical  sagacity,  was 
directed  by  a  brain  which  daily  speculated  upon 
problems  of  Attic  philosophy  and  Transcendental 
ism.  He  was  at  the  same  time  conservative  and 
radical,  self-reliant  and  self-depreciative,  industri 
ous  and  leisurely.  The  development  and  expression 
of  this  complex  personality  afford  many  seeming 
contradictions  which,  in  the  end,  become  con 
sistences. 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  33 

Some  modern  psychologists  declare  that  too  great 
emphasis  has  been  laid  upon  heredity  and  environ 
ment,  that  each  person  is  architect  of  his  own  char 
acter  to  a  far  greater  degree  than  is  commonly 
granted,  and  that  many  evolutions  of  later  traits 
are  wholly  distinct  from  influences  of  birth  or  early 
training.  General  readers,  however,  still  prefer  to 
retrace  personality  to  the  intermixture  of  racial 
qualities  which  have  been  expanded  or  suppressed 
by  environment.  In  a  study  of  Thoreau  such 
method  brings  ample  returns.  Many  contradictory 
traits  are  reflex  expressions  of  complex  inheritance. 
In  subtle  humor,  not  unmixed  with  earnest  aspira 
tion,  he  once  suggested  that  his  family  name  might 
be  derived  from  "  Thorer,  the  dog-footed,"  of  Scan 
dinavian  myth,  the  strongest  man  of  his  age.  In 
tracing  the  mythical  genealogy,  he  $ays, — "So  it 
seems  that  from  one  branch  of  the  family  were  de 
scended  the  kings  of  England,  and  from  the  other, 
myself."  With  characteristic  accuracy,  however, 
he  traced  his  French  and  Scotch  parental  ancestry 
and  the  Anglo-Saxon  Puritanism  inherited  from  his 
mother's  family. 

The  grandfather,  John  Thoreau,  was  born  at  St. 
Heliers  on  the  Isle  of  Jersey  and,  when  a  boy  just 
entering  manhood,  came  to  America  on  a  privateer 
in  1YT3.  In  his  journal,  June  11,  1853,  Henry 


34  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

Thoreau  records  a  family  tradition  that  this  grand 
father,  when  en  route  to  America,  saluted  the 
French  frigate,  La  Terrible,  which  carried  John 
Adams  to  France.  A  tourist  contributed  to  the 
Boston  Transcript,  five  years  ago,  the  story  of  his 
search  in  Jersey  for  further  trace  of  the  Thoreau 
family  and  especially  "Uncle  Peter,"  who  corre 
sponded,  for  many  years,  with  the  American 
branch.  One  grandchild  of  this  Jersey  wine-mer 
chant  still  lives  at  St.  Heliers,  though  her  name  has 
been  changed  by  marriage.  Her  son  is  a  fine 
scholar,  well  versed  in  English  and  American  litera 
ture,  and  proud  to  claim  kinship  with  Henry 
Thoreau.  The  house  where  John,  grandsire,  and 
his  brother  Peter  were  born  is  still  standing  op 
posite  the  churchyard. 

On  arrival  in  America  the  pioneer  Thoreau 
settled  in  Boston  as  a  merchant.  His  store  was  at 
first  on  Long  wharf  and  later  on  King  Street,  be 
fore  this  monarchical  name  was  changed  to  State 
Street.  For  many  years  he  lived  on  Prince  Street 
in  a  house  recently  destroyed.  In  1781,  John 
Thoreau  married  Jane  Burns  of  mingled  Scotch 
and  Quaker  blood.  While  still  a  young  woman  she 
died,  leaving  four  children,  John,  the  father  of 
Henry,  and  three  daughters.  The  Jersey  custom 
regarding  nomenclature  was  carefully  followed  by 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  35 

the  Thoreaus ;  the  elder  children,  John  and  Jane, 
bore  the  names  of  father  and  mother  respectively. 
Another  inheritance  from  the  Jersey  family  was 
the  rich,  sonorous  voice  transmitted  to  Henry 
Thoreau  and  his  sisters ;  the  former  always  retained 
a  slight  French  accent  and  a  bearing  of  alert,  tense 
energy,  "  as  if  he  had  not  a  moment  to  lose."  The 
removal  of  the  earlier  Thoreau  family  from  Boston 
may  be  traced  to  the  father's  second  marriage,  in 
1797,  to  Kebecca  Kettell  of  Concord.  It  is  certain 
that  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  century,  John 
Thoreau  was  living  in  Concord  where  he  died  in 
1801,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven.  Thus  early  had 
the  family  curse  of  consumption  appeared,  destined 
to  shorten  the  lives  of  two  generations  of  Thoreaus. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  this  first  John  contracted 
his  fatal  cold  while  patrolling  Boston  streets  in  a 
severe  rain-storm,  when  a  Catholic  riot  was  im 
minent  in  1801.  The  last  of  his  children,  Miss 
Maria  Thoreau,  died  in  Maine  in  1881,  and  with 
her  the  family  name  vanished  from  this  part  of 
America.  She  was  the  family  genealogist.  In  a 
letter,  now  first  utilized  in  print,  written  from 
Bangor,  March  10,  1873,  she  recounts  an  interesting 
item  regarding  her  mother's  ancestors  and  their 
Quaker  traits:  "My  grandmother's  name  was 
Sarah  Orreck,  American  by  birth  I  presume,  and 


36  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

living  at  Boston  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  with  a 
Scotch  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Burns,  who  came 
to  this  country  dressed  in  too  furbelow  a  style  to 
please  her  Quaker  notions,  for  he  had  to  divest  him 
self  of  them,  (his  ruffles  over  his  hands),  before 
gaining  her  consent  to  marry  him."  Henry  Tho- 
reau  was  a  worthy  descendant  of  this  Quakeress 
with  her  rigid  hatred  of  frills  and  fashions. 

John  Thoreau,  the  father  of  Henry,  was  born  in 
Boston  in  1787.  He  continued  his  father's  business 
as  merchant  in  a  store  in  Concord,  just  southeast  of 
the  old  court-house.  The  first  merchant  had 
amassed  a  large  property,  according  to  the  stand 
ards  of  that  time,  but  his  son  could  not  maintain  suc 
cess  ;  perhaps  Concord  lacked  the  opportunities  of 
Boston  as  a  trading  mart.  His  business  failure  was 
a  genuine  surrender  of  property.  A  friend  of  the 
Thoreaus  recently  told  me  that,  with  the  honesty 
which  characterized  the  family,  this  man,  after  his 
reverses,  even  sold  his  wedding-ring  of  gold,  that 
he  might  yield  his  slightest  effects  to  his  creditors. 
In  1812  he  had  married  and,  at  the  time  of  Henry's 
birth  in  1817,  the  family  were  living  with  the  mater 
nal  grandmother,  where  John  Thoreau  was  "  carry 
ing  on  the  farm."  When  Henry  was  eight  months 
old  they  moved  from  this  farm  into  the  village  and 
the  following  year  his  father  tested  again  his  for- 


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THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  37 

tunes  at  Chelmsford  where,  according  to  the  family 
day-book,  he  "  kept  shop  and  painted  signs."  An 
other  venture  in  trade  was  in  Boston  about  1820 
for  three  years ;  the  family  lived  on  Pinkney  Street 
and  here  Henry  began  his  school-life.  John  Tho- 
reau  seemed  unable  to  recover  fortune  and  he  re 
turned  to  Concord  to  venture  and  succeed  in  an 
other  craft.  A  few  years  earlier,  pencil-making  had 
been  introduced  here  by  the  Munroe  family,  to 
whose  large-hearted  success  the  Concord  Free  Pub 
lic  Library  stands  as  monument.  To  this  business 
John  Thoreau  now  devoted  himself  and,  with  in 
genuity  and  industry,  succeeded  so  well  that  his 
sister  said  he  won  the  first  medal  at  the  Salem 
Mechanics'  Fair.  A  more  immediate  and  practical 
result  was  his  ability  to  gain  an  income.  His  busi 
ness  was  later  increased  by  preparing  plumbago  for 
publishing  houses  in  JSTew  York  and  Boston.  All 
the  family  assisted  in  both  crafts  and  the  exact  proc 
ess  of  mixing  plumbago  was  carefully  concealed 
from  visitants  or  even  chance  inmates  of  the  home. 
Among  treasured  mementoes  of  Concord  I  have  a 
gift-pencil  bearing  the  stamp,—"  J.  Thoreau  &  Son, 
Concord,  Mass."  The  "  lead "  or  plumbago  was 
mined  in  Acton,  a  few  miles  distant,  and  the  coarse 
grinding  was  in  the  mill  now  at  Concord  Junction, 
marked  on  present-day  maps,  "Loring's  Lead 


38  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

Works."  The  fine  grinding,  by  a  small  weighted 
machine  of  interlocked  boxes,  the  rolling  and  pack 
ing,  were  completed  in  the  upper  room  in  the  ell 
of  the  Thoreau-Alcott  house. 

As  is  often  noted  in  genealogy,  the  French  traits 
were  less  pronounced  in  the  first  generation  of 
American  Thoreaus  than  in  the  Concord  family. 
"  Aunt  Maria,"  however,  boasted  "  the  vivacity  of 
the  French,"  which  she  seems  to  have  exampled  in 
tongue  and  pen.  A  frequent  sentence  in  the  letters 
from  Henry's  sisters,  reads, "  Aunt  Maria,  of  course, 
has  written  you  all  the  news."  John  Thoreau,  on  the 
other  hand,  exampled  the  reticent  composure  of  the 
Quaker  and  the  sturdy,  industrious  qualities  of  his 
Scotch  inheritance,  mingled  with  deft  and  inventive 
skill.  Punctilious  in  every  detail  of  life,  reserved 
before  strangers  yet  an  interesting  companion  to 
friends,  he  was  deeply  respected  by  his  townsmen, 
as  was  evidenced  at  his  death  in  1859.  His  was 
not  "  the  plodding,  unambitious  nature  "  which  has 
been  attributed  to  him.  Unfortunate  in  mercantile 
affairs,  as  was  many  another  during  the  early  years 
of  the  last  century,  he  amply  redeemed  his  failure 
by  his  ideal  honesty  and  his  later  persistent  and 
successful  manufacture  of  pencils,  plumbago, 
marbled  paper  and  allied  commodities.  An  unam 
bitious  man  would  not,  from  a  limited  income,  have 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  39 

given  his  four  children  an  education  of  marked  lib 
erality  for  those  days.  Among  books  in  the 
Thoreau  library  a  few  bore  the  father's  name  on 
the  fly-leaf.  They  represented  the  best  classics  in 
English.  Especially  valued  by  the  present  owner 
is  a  much  worn  copy  of  The  Spectator.  A 
trifling  incident  interwoven  in  Henry  Thoreau's 
journal  shows  the  father's  deep  respect  for  the 
studies  of  his  son,  long  after  college  days  were 
ended.  He  gently  reproved  Henry  because  "he 
took  time  from  his  studies "  to  make,  rather  than 
buy,  maple  sugar,  though  he  was  assured  that 
the  knowledge  thus  gained  was  commensurate  with 
"university  training." 

During  John  Thoreau's  later  life  his  home  was 
resort  for  noted  abolitionists  and  occasional  fugi 
tive  slaves.  The  family  name  has  been  closely 
linked  with  this  politico-reform  movement.  One 
who  knew  the  family  declared  that  all  were 
"  preeminent  and  sincere  reformers  in  an  era  and 
an  atmosphere  when  reformers  were  radical  by  a 
sort  of  necessity  of  environment."  Among  tributes 
to  the  sterling  worth  and  quiet  influence  of  John 
Thoreau,  none  surpass  Henry's  expressions  in  a 
letter  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Ricketson,  written  just  after 
his  father's  death,  and  included  by  Mr.  Sanborn  in 
"  Familiar  Letters  ; " — "  I  am  glad  to  read  what  you 


40  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

say  about  his  social  nature.  I  think  I  may  say  that 
he  was  wholly  unpretending,  and  there  was  this 
peculiarity  in  his  aim,  that  though  he  had  pecuniary 
difficulties  to  contend  with  the  greater  part  of  his 
life,  he  always  studied  merely  how  to  make  a  good 
article,  pencil  or  other  (for  he  practised  various 
arts),  and  was  never  satisfied  with  what  he  had 
produced.  Nor  was  he  ever  in  the  least  disposed 
to  put  off  a  poor  one  for  the  sake  of  pecuniary 
gain,  as  if  he  labored  for  a  higher  end."  How 
fully  the  ideality,  lofty  aim,  and  unflinching  hon 
esty  of  the  famous  son  may  be  traced  to  his  own 
revelation  of  his  father's  nature ! 

In  the  vivacity  and  adroitness  of  mind  character 
istic  of  French  ancestry,  one  is  tempted  to  believe 
that,  by  some  mischance,  the  Celtic  blood  belonged 
to  Thoreau's  mother.  Her  active,  fluent,  and  witty 
tongue,  expressive  of  a  brilliant  mind,  has  been  ac 
counted  as  "malicious  liveliness."  The  true  char 
acter  of  Mrs.  Thoreau,  however,  has  recently  re 
ceived  full  quota  of  justice  from  family  friends. 
Cynthia  Dunbar,  born  at  Keene,  New  Hampshire, 
in  178T,  was  the  daughter  of  a  clever  lawyer.  He 
died  the  year  of  her  birth  and  later  her  mother 
married  Jonas  Minott  of  Concord,  hence  the 
"  Minott  house  "  where  Henry  Thoreau  was  born. 
Mr.  Sanborn,  in  his  biography  of  Thoreau,  has  given 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  41 

a  romantic  flavor  to  records  of  the  Dunbar  family 
by  recalling  the  intimate  friendship  which  once  ex 
isted  between  Daniel  Webster  and  Mrs.  Thoreau's 
sister,  Louisa  Dunbar.  The  latter  was  a  gay,  at 
tractive  school-teacher  at  Boscawen  when  Webster 
prepared  there  for  college.  David  Dunbar,  for 
whom  Thoreau  was  named,  died  soon  after  his 
nephew's  birth.  "Uncle  Charles"  was  a  roving, 
debonnair  character,  somewhat  of  a  juggler  and 
wrestler  and  the  delight  of  the  children  because  of 
his  geniality  and  conjuring  tricks.  He  was  a  source 
of  amusement  and  education  to  Henry  Thoreau, 
as  chance  allusions  evidence ;  from  him,  in  turn,  the 
poet-naturalist  learned  some  simple  necromancy 
which  delighted  his  many  children  friends.  When 
lassitude  at  times  threatened  him  he  recalled  with 
humor  the  proneness  of  this  uncle  to  "cat-naps" 
and  his  ability  to  "  go  to  sleep  shaving  himself." 

Mrs.  Thoreau  tempered  the  gayety  and  keen  wit 
of  the  Dunbars  with  the  more  delicate,  kindly 
traits  of  her  maternal  family,  the  Joneses  of 
Weston.  Perhaps  too  much  emphasis  has  been  laid 
upon  her  lively,  assertive  temper  and  her  agile 
tongue;  a  family  guest  recently  admitted  that 
"she  was  an  incessant  talker."  Her  conversation, 
however,  was  not  limited  to  gossip  or  harangue,  as 
has  been  covertly  hinted.  Mr.  Irving  Allen,  wri- 


42  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

ting  from  personal  memories  in  The  Independent, 
July  25,  1895,  says;— "Mrs.  Thoreau  was  in  many 
respects  a  very  remarkable  woman,  the  most  pro 
lific  and  I  think  the  most  interesting  talker  I  ever 
met.  Her  fund  of  anecdote  and  reminiscence  was 
amazing  and  unfailing  ;  her  command  of  the  formi 
dable  female  weapon  of  sarcastic  rejoinder  entirely 
worthy  of  the  object  of  her  special  and  enthusiastic 
admiration,  Wendell  Phillips."  Among  the  letters 
loaned  for  this  volume  is  one  from  Mr.  Eicketson 
to  Miss  Sophia  Thoreau  after  her  mother's  death. 
Among  words  of  honor  and  friendship  are  these ; — 
"  Your  mother  was  a  woman  of  unusual  vivacity, 
as  well  as  of  rare  intellectual  power ;  and  in  her 
youth,  I  doubt  not,  was  not  only  handsome  but  the 
life  of  her  companions.  I  could  recognize  in  her 
dramatic  talent  the  origin  of  your  brother  Henry's 
fine  gift  for  conversation ;  and  in  the  quiet  manner  of 
your  dear  father  his  repose  of  mind : — combined,  the 
strong  contrasts  of  your  parents  produced  Henry's 
character,  one  of  the  truest  and  noblest  of  our  times." 
In  emphasis  of  Mrs.  Thoreau's  vivacity  and 
loquacity,  one  must  not  fail  to  record  as  well  her 
dainty,  refined  tastes,  shown  in  her  home  and  her 
gracious  attentions  to  her  guests  and  friends.  A 
Concord  lady,  who  has  enjoyed  her  hospitality,  has 
told  me  of  the  fine  taste  displayed  in  the  arrange- 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  43 

raent  of  the  plain  furniture  and  the  simple,  dainty 
service  of  her  table.  With  her  heirlooms  of  fine 
china  she  maintained  many  touches  of  a  refined  past 
custom ;  as  example,  she  always  dipped  the  spoon 
into  hot  water  before  serving  sugar,  that  the  fine 
flavor  might  be  secured.  This  delight  of  an  artistic 
nature  in  food,  which  should  appeal  to  the  eye  as 
well  as  the  taste,  was  transmitted  to  her  famous 
son.  In  a  journal  extract,  published  in  "  Winter," 
Thoreau  refers  to  his  pleasure  in  popping  corn,  "  a 
perfect  winter  flower,  uniting  anemones  and  hous- 
tonias,"  and  adds, — "  It  is  pleasant  to  relieve  the 
grossness  of  kitchen  and  table  by  simple  beauty  of 
repast  to  attract  the  eye  of  an  artist  even."  Mrs. 
Thoreau  was  an  ambitious,  cheery  woman,  suffering 
for  years  with  consumption,  yet  with  undaunted 
courage.  Finally,  at  the  age  of  eighty-five,  even  at 
her  death-hour,  she  is  described  as  "bursting  out 
with  a  song."  A  family  friend  recalls  her  last, 
patient  days,  in  an  article  in  The  Outlook, 
December  2,  1899  :  "  Ever  ready  to  be  interested 
in  passing  events,  expressing  keen  opinions  or  offer 
ing  valuable  suggestions,  her  hold  on  life  was  firm, 
and  it  was  almost  a  surprise  when  she  at  last 
yielded  to  the  inevitable  and  submitted  to  lie 
several  days  in  bed  before  the  end  came.  To  a 
friend  who  visited  her  at  this  period  Mrs.  Thoreau 


44  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

recited  Gate's  soliloquy  with  perfect  composure  and 
contentment.  Well  might  a  gifted  woman  exclaim, 
4  She  looks  like  a  queen,'  when  death  at  last  had 
claimed  the  resolute  spirit,  and  she  lay  silently  re 
ceiving  her  friends  for  the  last  time." 

Among  many  records  of  her  kindliness  are  two 
extracts  from  letters  in  the  Life  of  Father  Hecker 
by  Kev.  Walter  Elliott,  published  in  recent  years. 
Isaac  Hecker,  the  eccentric  baker  at  Brook  Farm 
and  later  proselyte  to  Catholicism,  as  a  young  man, 
came  to  Concord  to  study  the  classics  with  Mr. 
George  Bradford  and  boarded  with  the  Thoreaus. 
In  letters  to  his  mother  in  1844,  he  describes  his 
pleasant  room,  its  window  shaded  with  sweet 
honeysuckle  and  visited  by  humming-birds.  He 
adds, — "  The  lady  of  the  house,  Mrs.  Thoreau,  is  a 
woman.  The  only  fear  I  have  about  her  is  that  she 
is  too  much  like  dear  mother — she  will  take  too 
much  care  of  me."  Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thoreau 
were  deeply  interested  in  botany  and  physical 
geography.  With  their  children  and  guests  they 
visited  the  haunts  about  Concord,  collected  speci 
mens  of  plants,  rocks,  and  insects,  little  realizing 
that  their  son  was  to  become  America's  greatest 
nature-poet. 

Thus  the  complex  inheritance  of  the  four  Thoreau 
children  mingled  reserve  and  gayety,  dogged  and 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  45 

practical  industry  with  lofty  ideals,  love  of  nature 
and  of  books,  interest  in  all  reform  agitations,  and 
delight  in  refined,  domestic  life,  All  the  children 
were  keen  in  mind,  strong  and  individual  in  char 
acter.  All  sought  to  attain  that  "higher  end" 
with  which  Henry  accredits  his  father.  They  had 
an  independence  and  pride,  born  of  conscious 
power,  which  never  failed  to  serve  the  chance  need 
of  friend  or  stranger,  but  refused  to  accept  flattery 
or  condescension.  Mr.  Sanborn  has  said, — "  To 
meet  one  of  the  Thoreaus  was  not  the  same  as  to 
encounter  any  other  person  who  might  happen  to 
cross  your  path.  Life  to  them  was  something  more 
than  a  parade  of  pretensions,  a  conflict  for  ambi 
tions,  or  an  incessant  scramble  for  the  objects  of  de 
sire.  They  were  fond  of  climbing  to  the  hilltop, 
and  could  look  with  a  broader  and  kindlier  vision 
than  most  of  us  on  the  commotions  of  the  plain  and 
the  mists  of  the  valley." 

All  of  the  Thoreau  children  were  teachers.  Helen, 
the  older  sister,  five  years  the  senior  of  Henry, 
taught  for  some  time  at  Taunton,  and  her  brother 
John  was  a  teacher  at  the  same  place  for  a  time ; 
later  they  were  both  at  Roxbury,  as  Henry's  letters 
indicate.  Helen's  letters,  only  a  few  of  which 
have  ever  been  published  but  which  have  been  loaned 
for  use  in  this  volume,  show  an  earnest,  practical 


46  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

mind,  well  versed  in  all  the  studies  of  that  day, 
with  an  unusual  ambition  to  learn  more  of  the  ele 
mentary  sciences.  At  her  school  in  Roxbury,  her 
sister,  Sophia,  assisted  for  a  while.  One  letter  defi 
nitely  settles  this  mooted  question  regarding 
Helen's  private  school :  "  Helen  and  Sophia  have 
advertised  their  intention  of  opening  a  boarding- 
school  in  Roxbury.  H.  when  there,  found  a  suita 
ble  room,  and  a  lady  willing  to  board  them  with 
some  of  the  scholars.  This  is  a  great  undertaking 
with  H.'s  feeble  health ;  indeed,  I  don't  see  how  it  is 
possible  for  her  to  do  it.  The  terms  are  very  high, 
and  a  great  deal  of  course  will  be  expected.  Ask 
E.  if  Mr.  Kent's  fifteen  dollars  a  quarter  didn't  in 
clude  all  branches,  excepting  music  ?  H.'s  is 
twenty.  It  was  the  advice  of  those  whom  she  con 
sulted  on  the  spot.  She  herself  was  disposed  to  be 
more  moderate."  That  Helen  and  Sophia  had  ex 
cellent  educations  is  attested  by  the  few  letters 
written  in  Latin  to  them  by  Henry  and  included  in  the 
volume  of  Thoreau's  "  Familiar  Letters."  The  gay 
humor  and  loving  sympathy  gleam  through  the  ver 
nacular.  One  paragraph  is  especially  affectionate  and 
poetic ; — "  When  Robin  Redbreast  brings  back  the 
springtime,  I  trust  that  you  will  lay  your  school 
duties  aside,  cast  off  care,  and  venture  to  be  gay 
now  and  then ;  roaming  with  me  in  the  woods,  or 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  47 

climbing  the  Fairhaven  Cliffs, — or  else,  in  my  boat 
at  Walden,  let  the  water  kiss  your  hand,  or  gaze  at 
your  image  in  the  wave." 

Helen  Thoreau,  who  died  in  1849,  before  her 
brother's  genius  had  met  any  wide  appreciation, 
was  always  proud  of  him  and  confident  of  his  suc 
cess.  It  was  Helen  who  said  to  Mrs.  Brown,  the 
sister  of  Mrs.  Emerson,  after  a  lecture  by  the 
"  Concord  sage," — "  Henry  has  a  thought  very  like 
that  in  his  journal."  Moreover,  she  loaned  the 
journal  to  Mrs.  Brown  who  thus  brought  it  and 
Thoreau  to  the  attentive  interest  of  Emerson.  She 
was  always  fearful  lest  people  might  misinterpret 
her  brother's  frank  aims  and  speech.  In  a  letter  to 
her  in  October,  1837,  just  after  Henry  had  finished 
college,  he  refers  to  her  defense  of  his  attitude ; 
with  characteristic  freedom,  he  urges  honest,  open 
expression  of  opinion,  received  by  society  with  a 
justice  which  will  require  neither  apology  nor  ex 
planation.  Again,  Helen  is  associated  with  the  in 
cident  that  examples  the  gay,  teasing  humor  of 
Mrs.  Thoreau,  the  proud,  supersensitive  heart  of 
Henry,  and  the  tender,  protecting  love  of  the  elder 
sister.  Just  before  college  was  ended,  Thoreau 
asked  his  mother  what  profession  he  should  choose 
and  merrily  she  replied, — "You  may  buckle  on 
your  knapsack,  dear,  and  seek  your  fortune  in  the 


48  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

world."  As  the  unconscious  raillery  grieved  the 
home-loving  boy,  Helen  lovingly  encircled  his 
shoulder  and  said, — "  No,  Henry,  you  shall  not  go  ; 
you  shall  stay  at  home  and  live  with  us," — and  so 
he  did,  "  loving  and  being  loved,  serving  and  being 
served." 

The  same  tender  earnestness  which  characterized 
Helen  was  a  marked  trait  of  John,  two  years  the 
senior  of  Henry.  As  one  stands  before  the  plain, 
spotless  Thoreau  monument  at  Sleepy  Hollow,  and 
notes  simply  the  date — 1815,  sans  month  or  day, 
on  John's  birth-record,  the  strange  fact  recurs  to 
memory  that,  in  this  methodical  family,  by  some 
droll  oversight,  no  one  had  preserved  with  surety 
this  son's  birthday.  John's  thoughtful  services  to 
others  have  been  recorded  in  part.  For  Emerson 
he  procured  a  daguerreotype  of  little  Waldo,  "  the 
hyacinthine  boy,"  a  few  months  before  his  death 
shattered  the  father's  hopes  and  wrung  from  his 
sore  heart  that  pathetic  "  Threnody."  Again,  Em 
erson  refers  to  a  little  box-house  for  bluebirds  on 
his  barn,  placed  there  by  John  Thoreau,  where  for 
fifteen  years  the  annual  visitants  gladdened  the 
Emerson  household.  John  and  Henry  Thoreau 
were  constant  companions  and  the  loss  of  John's 
broad  and  warm  humanity  left  marked  impress 
upon  the  younger  brother.  With  less  combative- 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  49 

ness  and  reserve,  with  more  cheeriness,  John  was 
generally  the  favorite  among  boyish  comrades. 
With  a  good  education,  though  not  college-bred, 
he  was  a  most  successful  teacher.  In  a  letter 
from  Henry,  sent  to  Koxbury,  where  he  was 
teaching  in  1838,  is  the  proposition,  that,  after 
John's  school  was  ended,  they  should  go  west  to 
seek  a  school  together,  or,  find  individual  posi 
tions.  The  plan  for  this  Western  pilgrimage 
failed,  however,  and  the  same  year  John  assisted 
Henry  in  a  little  private  school  at  the  old  Parkman 
House,  where  the  Thoreaus  then  resided.  During 
the  next  two  years,  both  taught  at  the  Concord 
Academy,  then  on  Academy  Lane,  now  moved  to 
Middle  Street  and  somewhat  changed.  This  was  a 
private  school,  for  the  town  had  abandoned  the 
Academy  for  a  High  School  four  years  before. 
Eesearch  among  old  Concord  newspapers  disclosed 
the  following  announcements  in  The  Yeoman's 
Gazette,  September  7,  1839  : 

"CONCORD  ACADEMY. 

The  Fall  Term  will  commence  on  Monday  Sept.  23d,  and  con 
tinue  twelve  weeks. 

TEEMS. 

English  branches,  $4.00 

Languages  included,  $6.00 

No  pupils  will  be  received  for  less  than  one  quarter. 

JOHN  THOREAU,  JR.,  PRECEPTOR." 


50  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

The  following  year,  September  18,  1840,  the  above 
advertisement  is  repeated  with  the  addendum : 
"  Henry  D.  Thoreau  will  continue  to  assist  in  the 
Classical  Department." 

John  taught  English  and  mathematics  and  seems 
to  have  won  the  enthusiasm  and  love  of  his  pupils 
in  larger  measure  than  his  more  gifted,  yet  more 
reserved,  brother.  Extracts  from  a  journal  of  one 
of  the  resident  pupils,  to  be  mentioned  in  the  next 
chapter,  record  many  instances  of  the  cordial,  con 
siderate  attentions  of  John  to  the  boys,  his  cooper 
ation  in  their  tasks  and  games,  and  his  opportune 
fig  or  orange  shyly  bestowed  upon  some  pupil 
who  was  under  ban  of  mild  punishment,  which 
meant  abstinence  from  delicacies  of  food.  Like  all 
the  family,  John  was  a  good  musician  and  the 
brothers  delighted  to  sing  together.  One  who 
knew  Henry  recalls  that,  after  the  death  of 
John,  he  often  refused  to  sing,  though  love  for 
music  remained  a  master-passion  of  his  life.  In  "  A 
Week"  Thoreau  makes  definite  reference  to  the 
gentle  influence  of  John ; — "  and  his  cheerful  spirit 
soothed  and  reassured  his  brother,  for  wherever 
they  meet,  the  Good  Genius  is  sure  to  prevail." 
Companions  in  lofty  thoughts  and  practical  home- 
life,  they  were,  as  well,  comrades  in  nature-study 
and  search  for  Indian  relics.  In  his  journals,  Henry 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  51 

recounts  their  early  morning  strolls  to  Fairhaven 
and  elsewhere,  while  his  letters  testify  to  common 
interest  in  Indian  tradition  and  archeology.  After 
John's  death  in  1842,  in  the  poem  first  written  in 
his  journal  and  later  transcribed  in  a  letter  to 
Helen,  are  pathetic  memories  of  this  nature-com 
panionship  : 

"Dost  thou  still  haunt  the  brink 

Of  yonder  river's  tide  ? 
And  may  I  ever  think 

That  thou  art  by  my  side  ?  " 

"  What  bird  wilt  thou  employ 

To  bring  me  word  of  thee  ? 
For  it  would  give  them  joy, — 

'Twould  give  them  liberty, 
To  serve  their  former  lord 

With  wing  and  minstrelsy." 

There  was  a  fearful  tragedy  connected  with  the 
death  of  John,  the  first  rift  in  the  Thoreau  house 
hold.  He  died  of  lockjaw,  due  to  tetanus  poison  in 
a  cut  upon  the  finger.  A  friend  of  Miss  Sophia 
Thoreau,  in  a  recent  interview,  said  that  the  wound 
received  instant  and  expert  treatment  from  Boston, 
but  no  efforts  could  avail  to  avert  the  terrible 
sequel.  She  also  verifies  the  tradition  that  Henry 
suffered  sympathetically  for  a  time  during  the  hours 
of  agony.  His  memory  of  that  suffering  never 
lightened ;  twelve  years  afterwards,  when  occasion 


52  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

necessitated  reference  to  it,  he  became  pale  and 
faint.  In  the  journal  poem,  already  cited,  he 
queried, — 

"  Is  thy  brow  clear  again, 

As  in  thy  youthful  years? 
And  was  that  ugly  pain 
The  summit  of  thy  fears  ? 

"  Yet  thou  wast  cheery  still ; 

They  could  not  quench  thy  fire ; 
Thou  didst  abide  their  will, 
And  then  retire. ' ' 

Verily  the  Thoreaus,  as  a  family,  knew  how  to  die  as 
bravely  as  they  lived ! 

Sophia,  the  youngest  of  the  four  children, 
destined  to  survive  all  her  family,  inherited  the 
practical,  mechanical  ability  and  the  cheerful 
spirit,  combined  with  a  strong  talent  for  art.  To 
her  pen  we  owe  the  only  authentic  sketch  of  the 
Walden  hut.  She  was  especially  fond  of  flowers 
and  had  a  fine  conservatory  near  the  dining-room. 
Henry's  letters  to  her  testify  to  their  common 
interest  in  botany  and  woodcraft ;  he  recorded,  in 
his  journal,  their  joint  pleasure  in  watching  the 
evolution  of  a  brilliant  moth.  During  his  later  life 
they  walked  and  rowed  together  and  when 
strength  for  exercise  failed  Sophia  became  his 
companion  on  long  drives  and  was  his  faithful 
scribe.  Among  some  letters,  now  first  published, 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  53 

is  the  following  from  Sophia,  revealing  her  prac 
tical  industry  and  her  intense  love  for  botany.  It 
was  written  while  she  was  teaching  in  Roxbury : 
"  I  must  give  vent  to  my  ecstasies  by  writing  you 
about  the  flowers  I  have  found.  .  .  .  Since  my 
return  to  Eoxbury  I  have  been  very  busy,  having 
made  myself  a  gown,  worked  half  a  collar  like 
yours,  made  two  visits,  been  in  to  Boston  six  times, 
besides  attending  school  every  day.  To  proceed  to 
business ;  on  the  19th  of  April  I  found  the  saxifraga ; 
April  22d,  I  walked  with  the  young  ladies  and 
gathered  the  viola  and  cinquefoil;  April  26th, 
accompanied  by  nearly  all  my  scholars  I  walked 
over  to  Dorchester,  and  much  to  my  surprise  found 
the  caltha  in  blossom,  which  we  did  not  find  in 
Concord  until  the  third  week  in  May.  The  last 
week  in  April  I  found  the  blueberry,  buttercup, 
dandelion  and  columbine  in  blossom, — as  to  the 
poor  little  houstonias  I  haven't  glimpsed  one  this 
spring."  In  a  postscript  she  adds  that  the  Pyrus 
and  viola  blanda  are  also  in  blossom.  Surely  a 
woman  who  uses  a  postscript  for  a  botanical  fact  may 
be  pardoned  !  Like  the  rest  of  the  family  Sophia  was 
fond  of  music  and  skilled  both  in  voice  and  upon 
the  piano,  which  was  a  late  addition  to  the 
pleasures  of  the  Thoreau  home.  As  already  hinted, 
she  was  the  nurse  and  literary  assistant  of  her 


54  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

brother  during  his  last  years.  She  lived,  moreover, 
to  redeem  his  character  from  the  unjust  representa 
tions  of  ultra-stoicism  and  an  egotistic  autocracy. 
To  her  true  and  loving  memory  are  due  the  later 
testimonies  to  her  brother's  home-tenderness  and 
his  friendships.  After  his  death,  she  continued  the 
family  business  of  preparing  plumbago  and  showed 
keen,  sage  ability.  Forty  years  ago  it  was  unusual 
for  a  woman  to  conduct  business ;  with  her  friends 
she  used  to  laugh  at  her  inability  to  establish  her 
name  as  a  business  agent.  Though  she  signed  her 
letters  with  her  full  name,  the  replies  were  invaria 
bly  addressed,  "  Dear  Sir."  Among  the  interesting 
reminiscences  in  the  Outlook  already  mentioned, 
are  the  tributes  to  the  practical  judgment  and  the 
artistic  and  musical  gifts  of  Sophia. 

Chance  visitors  and  Concord  friends  have  con 
curred  regarding  the  tender,  deferential,  even  win 
some,  relations  of  the  Thoreau  family.  Their 
conversation  was  sentient  and  witty  but  always 
reverential  of  nobler  ideals  of  life  and  broad  relig 
ion.  They  read  the  best  books  and  discussed 
them  with  fresh,  potent  insight;  they  enjoyed 
games  and  music ;  they  exchanged  visits  and  tea- 
gatherings  and  took  part  in  town-events  of  social 
and  literary  moment.  The  erroneous  theory  that 
the  Thoreaus  were  admitted  to  Concord  society  by 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  55 

suffrance,  and  not  by  right,  has  been  fully  corrected 
during  recent  years.  One  who  well  knew  the 
home-circle  said, — "No  one  could  more  heartily 
enjoy  his  family  life  than  Henry."  If  there  has 
seemed  unusual  delay  in  introducing  the  subject  of 
this  biography,  it  has  been  with  the  purpose  of  care 
fully  revealing  the  environment,  physical  and  men 
tal,  and  the  family  traits  of  the  Thoreaus,  in  order 
that,  with  the  background  completed,  his  entrance 
might  seem  in  general  harmony  with  his  surround 
ings,  as  indeed  it  was.  If  thus  regarded,  he  will 
not  stand  forth  as  the  exotic  and  eccentric  that  he 
has  so  often  been  called.  He  was  the  product  of 
"  Concord  woods  and  Concord  culture  "  and  he  re 
vealed,  as  well,  the  ancestral  traits  of  two  distinct 
and  remarkable  families.  French  love  for  nature, 


wit,  and  energy,  Scotch  doggedness  and  courageous 
empEasis  oTIreedom,  Puritan  rigidity  of^  principle 
and  cuiisciuiice,  latent  tenderness  with  external  re 
serve,  united  with  Quaker  love  of  simplicity  and 


dislike  of  general  society,—  such  family 
were  resident  in  the  boy,  born  in  1817,  at  the  iso 
lated  farmhouse  beside  thejoplars,  the  peat-bogs, 
and  the  ambling_bro:Dk,  niuthe  old  Virginia  road. 
The  place  of  Thoreau's  birth  has  been  rendered 
doubly  interesting  by  the  recent  resurrection  of 
a  tradition  which  is  grounded  on  fact,  that  here,  a 


56  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

negro,  freed  and  sent  northward  from  Virginia, 
built  his  cabin  on  what  was  then  known  as  "  The 
Plains."  Gradually,  a  footpath  thence  was  trodden 
to  the  town.  As  the  negro  was  known  as  "  Old 
Virginia,"  his  narrow,  twisted  path  took  the  name 
of  "  Old  Virginia  Lane."  In  memory  of  Thoreau's 
active  efforts  against  slavery  and  his  last  potent 
words  in  behalf  of  John  Brown,  the  tradition  as 
sumes  a  romantic  and  prophetic  significance. 

Biographers  always  repeat  Thoreau's  entry  in 
his  journal, — "  I  was  baptized  in  the  old  meeting 
house  by  Dr.  Bipley,  when  I  was  three  months 
old  and  did  not  cry."  Perchance  this  foretold 
later  stoicism  and  indifference  to  the  spectacular! 
He  was  christened  David  Henry,  and  his  names 
were  not  reversed  until  college  days,  although  his 
home-name  was  always  Henry.  After  the  removal 
of  his  father's  business  to  Chelmsford  and  Boston, 
as  already  noted,  the  family  returned  to  Concord 
when  he  was  six  years  old.  He  recalled  a  dim, 
childish  memory  of  an  adventure  with  a  cow, 
which,  enraged  by  his  flannel  gown  of  red,  gave 
him  a  violent  toss  before  he  was  rescued.  Mr. 
Joseph  Hosmer,  the  friend  of  his  boyhood,  says 
that  Thoreau  disliked  street  parades  and  noisy 
"  shows,"  though  interested  in  the  sham-fights  on 
musters  and  "  Cornwallis  Days."  He  preferred  to 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  57 

be  a  spectator  rather  than  a  participant  in  many  of 
the  games ;  his  chief  delight  was  to  wander  away 
to  the  river-banks  to  search  for  arrow-heads  and 
pestles,  or  to  watch  the  occasional  Indians  who 
paddled  down  the  Musketaquid.  Doubtless,  this 
cautious,  minute  study  of  Indian  habits  gave  him 
that  great  skill  with  the  paddles  which  caused. 
Hawthorne's  admiration  and  personal  despair. 
There  existed  a  family  memory  that,  as  a  little 
boy,  Thoreau  was  greatly  alarmed  in  thunder 
storms  and  would  creep  to  his  father's  lap  for 
comfort,  that  he  was  to  find  later  beneath  Nature's 
own  protection. 

As  early  as  ten  years  his  seriousness  of  mien  had 
given  him  the  common  boyish  title  of  "Judge." 
His  wonderful  control  over  a  most  sensitive  emo 
tional  nature  was  early  tested.  When,  as  a  lad,  he 
took  his  petted  chickens  to  the  innkeeper  for  sale, 
he  was  compelled  to  see  their  necks  wrung,  as  he 
stood  by,  pale  with  compressed  lips.  Channing 
relates  another  childish  anecdote  which  is  im 
portant  in  later  character-analysis.  A  schoolmate 
had  lost  a  knife  and  Henry,  accused,  maintained 
quietly,  "  I  did  not  take  it."  When  the  theft  was 
finally  located,  he  explained  that  he  had  been  away 
all  that  day  with  his  father,  but  his  reserve  and 
dogged  sense  of  justice  refused  to  make  this  ex- 


58  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

planation  earlier.  Already  his  skill  with  tools  had 
won  him  a  reputation  among  his  mates.  He  was 
asked  to  whittle  a  bow  and  arrow  for  a  friend  but 
firmly  declined,  incurring  unjust  censure  for  ob 
stinacy  and  selfishness.  Later  the  real  cause  was 
revealed, — he  lacked  a  knife.  This  proud  reti 
cence,  remaining  as  a  trait  of  manhood,  caused 
those  misunderstandings  and  yearnings  for  that 
ideal  friendship  which  could  comprehend  without 
explanations,  which  seemed  to  him  to  detract  from 
pure  love.  As  a  boy,  he  found  delight  in  his  home 
and  a  few  companions  with  whom  he  was  occasion 
ally  gay  with  the  abandon  of  a  Dunbar.  He  bore 
his  part  in  home-duties,  driving  the  cow  to  pasture, 
drawing  the  water  from  the  well,  and  supplying 
the  logs  for  the  fireplace.  His  great  pleasure  was 
to  wade  through  mud  and  stream  for  some  cher 
ished  flower  or  brink-side  bush,  or  to  join  his 
brother  with  fishing-line  or  gun,  in  those  days 
before  the  poet  had  superseded  the  angler  and 
hunter. 

While  at  school  at  the  local  academy,  he  had  part 
in  a  program  of  the  Concord  Academic  Society, 
urging  the  negative  on  the  subject,  "Is  a  good 
memory  preferable  to  a  good  understanding  in  order 
to  be  a  distinguished  scholar  at  school  ?  "  In  the 
old  Concord  newspaper  this  note  is  appended  to  the 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  59 

report,  "the  affirmative  disputant,  through  negli 
gence,  had  prepared  nothing  for  debate,  and  the 
negative  not  much  more.  Accordingly,  no  other 
member  speaking,  the  president  decided  in  the  neg 
ative.  His  decision  was  confirmed  by  a  majority 
of  four."  On  this  boyish  occasion,  duly  reported 
in  mock-heroic  style,  Thoreau  doubtless  represented 
his  real  opinion  regarding  education.  At  the 
academy,  as  later  at  college,  he  was  largely  indif 
ferent  to  the  prescribed  studies  but  was  always 
noted  for  "a  good  understanding."  The  Greek 
and  Latin,  conned  in  those  earlier  days,  gave  him 
foundation  knowledge  of  the  best  classics  and  sup 
plied  many  of  the  quotations,  from  both  familiar 
and  recondite  sources  so  abundant  in  his  writings. 
Of  his  college  preparation,  in  typical  semi-humor 
and  semi-aggressiveness,  he  wrote  in  his  class  me 
morials  ; — "  I  was  fitted,  or  rather,  made  unfit  for 
college  at  Concord  Academy  and  elsewhere,  mainly 
by  myself,  with  the  countenance  of  Phineas  Allen, 
preceptor."  In  the  class-book,  found  in  the  library 
at  Harvard  University,  he  again  refers  jocosely  to 
his  poor  preparation ; — "  '  One  branch  more,'  to  use 
Mr.  Quincy's  words,  '  and  you  had  been  turned  by 
entirely  !  You  have  barely  got  in.'  However,  '  a 
man's  a  man  for  a'  that ! '  I  was  in  and  did  not 
stop  to  ask  how  I  got  there."  He  did  not  cast 


60  THE  THOREAU  FAMILY 

blame  upon  his  teacbers  for  bis  lapses  but  referred 
to  bis  own  roaming  babits, — "  Those  bours  tbat 
should  have  been  devoted  to  study  have  been  spent 
in  scouring  the  woods  and  exploring  the  lakes  and 
streams  of  my  native  village." 

Despite  these  assertions  of  negligence,  always  to 
be  considered  as  extravagant  in  self-depreciation, 
be  showed  sufficient  brain-power  so  that  his  family 
decided  to  send  him  through  Harvard,  though  this 
would  involve  careful  planning  of  the  financial  re 
sources.  There  are  bints  that  this  ambition  was 
stronger  on  the  part  of  bis  family  than  as  his  own 
desire.  As  youth  and  man,  he  was  always  best 
content  at  home  and  disliked  contact  with  many 
strangers.  Later,  during  absence,  be  wrote  his 
mother,  "Methinks,  I  should  be  content  to  sit  at 
the  back-door  in  Concord,  under  the  poplar-tree, 
henceforth  forever."  When  away  from  home  be 
pictured  in  imagination  the  distinctive  occupation 
and  pleasure  of  each  member  of  the  circle,  and  his 
affectionate  memories  gave  him  many  a  pang  of 
nostalgia.  In  turn,  amid  home-scenes,  he  was  full 
of  practical  sympathy.  Channing,  with  authentic 
force,  wrote, — "He  was  one  of  those  characters 
who  may  be  called  household  treasures ;  always  on 
the  spot  with  skilful  eye  and  hand  to  raise  the  best 
melons  in  the  market,  plant  the  orchard  with  the 


THE  THOREAU  FAMILY  6l 

choicest  trees,  act  as  extempore  mechanic,  fond  of 
the  pets,  the  sister's  flowers,  or  sacred  Tabby, — 
kittens  being  his  favorites, — he  would  play  with 
them  by  the  half -hour." 

Such  were  the  qualities  of  heart  and  mind,  dur 
ing  the  formative  years  of  boyhood  as  well  as  after 
the  tentative  experiences  of  college,  teaching,  and 
Walden  life.  His  life  record  bespoke  a  deep,  sen 
sitive  home-love,  a  practical  helpfulness,  a  pride  and 
reserve  which  admitted  the  few  rather  than  the 
many  to  his  friendship,  a  tenacity  of  purpose  gov 
erned  by  his  own  interpretation  of  moral  law,  an 
indifference  to  the  more  common  social  excitements 
but  a  plain,  unswerving  delight  in  nature-study, 
music,  and  classic  literature,  especially  poetry.  Such 
were  the  basal  traits  which  characterized  Henry 
Thoreau  when  he  entered  college  in  1833,  there  to 
meet  certain  influences  which  would  further  evolve 
his  character  and  enable  him  to  frame  a  strange, 
yet  consistent,  philosophy  of  life  that  would  bear 
the  final  test  of  personal  application. 


The  Years  of  Preparation 


CHAPTEK  III 

THE  YEAES  OF  PREPARATION 

THERE  are  few  subjects  of  broad  interest  in 
America  that  have  shown  more  radical 
changes  of  view-point  during  the  last  half-century 
than  those  pertaining  to  the  aims  and  influence  of 
college  education.  When  Thoreau  entered  Harvard 
the  older  conviction  prevailed,  that  college  must  be 
a  stepping-stone  to  some  one  of  "  the  gentlemanly 
professions."  The  broader  sentiment  of  to-day,  that 
college  is  preparation  for  life  in  any  vocation, — pro 
fession,  trade,  society,  philanthropy,  statescraft, — 
was  then  but  an  embryonic  and  feeble  vision  of  a 
few  minds.  The  college  graduate  was  expected  to 
swell  the  ranks  of  clergy,  physicians,  lawyers,  or, 
when  other  chances  failed,  to  become  a  teacher. 
Analogous  to  this  tenet  regarding  the  purpose  of 
a  college  education,  was  a  corresponding  fixed  code 
of  judgment  upon  a  young  man's  mentality  and 
promise.  To  gain  recommendation  by  a  faculty  he 
must  devote  himself  to  the  prescribed  texts,  often 
winning  greater  enconium  by  "  a  good  memory " 
of  some  insignificant  passage  than  by  "  a  good  under- 

65 


66         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

standing"  of  the  principle  involved.  In  other 
words,  there  was  a  premium  on  "the  dig."  Oc 
casionally,  some  rare,  broad-minded  professor  recog 
nized  the  true  gifts  of  a  boy  who  seemed  indifferent 
to  the  requirements  but  displayed  talent  in  other 
directions.  To-day,  even  under  the  most  catholic 
conception  of  the  meaning  of  college,  as  a  life  more 
than  a  course,  with  our  generous  elective  system, 
we  fail  to  reach  the  latent  ability  of  many  a  youth 
whose  rank  in  the  old-time  requirements  may  be 
low  but  who  has  genius  in  other  lines,  as  later  life 
reveals.  The  president  of  a  prominent  college  in 
New  England  has  recently  advocated  the  extension 
of  the  educational  period  that  the  student,  before 
his  course  is  finished,  may  be  able  both  "  to  find 
himself  "  and  "  to  make  sure  of  himself."  In  con 
trast,  however,  with  Thoreau's  college  opportuni 
ties  seventy  years  ago,  the  student  now  has  maxi 
mum  chances  to  choose  widely,  to  test  and  qualify 
his  powers  along  myriad  lines  and,  at  least,  "  to 
find  himself  "  and  his  specific  interest. 

There  is  much  current  defense  of  the  smaller  col 
leges  on  the  ground  of  the  closer  relationship  there  be 
tween  professor  and  student.  Comparisons  are  also 
made  between  Harvard  of  sixty  years  ago,  with  two 
hundred  students  closely  watched  and  encouraged 
by  their  thirty  professors,  and  Harvard  of  to-day, 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         67 

with  more  than  four  thousand  students  and  nearly 
two  hundred  professors  and  instructors,  where  rela 
tions  must  be  largely  impersonal.  Without  any 
discussion  of  the  general  argument,  it  would  seem 
as  if  the  college  known  to  Emerson,  Thoreau  and 
Lowell  was  scarcely  noted  for  this  intimate  ac 
quaintance  or,  in  fact,  for  individual  insight  or 
foresight.  Undoubtedly,  Edward  Channing,  Tick- 
nor,  Longfellow,  and  later,  Lowell,  as  professors, 
became  interested  in  many  students  with  fine  men 
tality  and  gave  incentive  to  individual  development, 
yet  their  examples  seem  sufficiently  rare  to  be 
given  special  reference.  Edward  Everett  Hale, 
who  was  graduated  from  Harvard  the  year  after 
Thoreau,  has  given  some  interesting  reminiscences 
of  the  class-room  atmosphere  in  "  A  New  England 
Boyhood  "  and  also  in  "  James  Russell  Lowell  and 
his  Friends."  He  recalls  the  favorite  and  apt  term, 
seminary,  usually  employed  by  President  Quincy 
when  speaking  of  the  college.  In  the  narrow  cur 
riculum,  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics  formed 
staple  products,  with  "modern  language  days" 
three  times  a  week.  Of  these  so-called  "volun 
taries,"  a  student  must  choose,  at  the  beginning, 
German,  French,  Italian,  or  Spanish,  and  maintain 
his  chosen  language  without  change  for  four  terms. 
As  further  discouragement  to  modern  "volun- 


68         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

taries,"  Dr.  Hale  avers  that  the  "  marks  "  in  these 
studies  counted  only  half  the  value  of  classical 
"merits."  He  adds; — "Most  of  the  work  of  the 
college  was  then  done  in  rather  dreary  recitations, 
such  as  you  might  expect  in  a  somewhat  mechanical 
school  for  boys  to-day."  College  prayers,  compul 
sory  twice  a  day  at  early  dawn  and  dusk,  regardless 
of  the  hours  of  breakfast  and  supper,  formed  an 
other  feature  repellent  to  many  a  student  of  sincere, 
but  liberal,  religion.  These  became  "the  sins  of 
omission "  which  caused  the  "  rustication "  of 
Lowell  at  Concord  and  the  necessary  printing,  not 
reading,  of  the  class  poem  by  the  "  ostracized  poet." 
A  friend  of  Thoreau,  in  granting  a  recent  inter 
view,  began  her  delightful  memories  by  saying, — 
"  Henry  Thoreau  was  fifty  years  in  advance  of  his 
times."  This  is  a  succinct  statement  for  his  whole 
life  and  was  manifested  in  his  college  years. 
Thoreau  was  not  happy  nor  appreciated  at  Cam 
bridge.  As  his  later  letters  indicate,  he  deplored 
the  lack  of  studies  connected  with  his  particular  in 
terest, — nature  in  varied  scientific  forms.  There  ex 
isted  a  Natural  History  Society  among  the  students 
with  rooms  in  the  basement  of  Massachusetts.  Ac 
cording  to  Dr.  Hale's  memory,  the  students  sup 
plied  the  furnishings,  and  he  recalls  the  bargainings 
with  carpenters  rather  than  the  scientific  speci- 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         69 

mens  displayed.  It  was  too  early  for  the  awaken 
ing  in  science  in  America  which  really  dated  from 
the  coming  of  Agassiz.  In  research  among  old 
Harvard  catalogues,  where  David  Henry  Thoreau 
was  entered  at  Room  32,  Hollis,  I  noted  lectures 
on  minerology  (sic),  chemistry  and  anatomy  for 
the  senior  year.  In  an  interesting  paper  in  Har- 
vardiana  for  1835,  unsigned  as  were  all  of  those 
secretive  contributions  of  students,  is  a  plea,  en 
titled  "Manual  Labor  System,"  denouncing  the 
suggestion  of  manual  work  in  college  and  urging 
outdoor  life  and  study  for  exercise  and  education. 
The  writer  says  ; — "  The  pages  of  nature  are  ample 
enough  and  the  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  thence 
instructive  enough  to  employ  his  highest  thoughts 
and  afford  him  endless  subjects  for  study  and  reflec 
tion."  Probably  Thoreau  never  wrote  for  this  college 
journal  but  the  paper  evidences  the  dawning  interest 
in  nature  with  which  he  was  already  inspired.  His 
college  studies,  however,  became  a  subtle,  potent 
factor  in  his  later  authorship.  Indifferent  to  the 
social  and  convivial  life  of  the  college  town,  he 
devoted  himself  to  classic  literature,  reading  as 
siduously  at  the  well-chosen  library  of  fifty  thou 
sand  volumes.  He  afterwards  frankly  said  that  the 
library  was  the  only  part  of  his  college  training 
which  gave  him  passing  pleasure  and  lasting  good. 


70         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

He  became  lovingly  familiar  not  alone  with  Greek 
and  Latin  classics  but  also  with  the  earlier  English 
poets,  Chaucer,  Gower,  Donne,  Spenser  and  Milton. 
Harvard,  during  Thoreau's  time,  was  passing 
through  its  literary  fever.  The  professors,  Tick- 
nor,  Bancroft,  Sparks,  and  Channing,  recognizing 
the  benefits  of  literary  culture  in  foreign  uni 
versities,  especially  in  Germany,  brought  back  to 
Harvard  the  germs  of  a  renaissance  destined  to 
create  the  first  true  American  literature.  It  has 
been  truthfully  said  that  "probably  Professor 
Edward  T.  Channing  trained  as  many  conspicuous 
authors  as  all  other  American  instructors  put  to 
gether."  Goethe,  Carlyle,  Tennyson,  and  Emerson 
were  introduced  gradually  into  literature  classes 
and  the  students  became  omnivorous  readers,  often 
joining  secret  societies  for  the  weekly  supply  of 
matter  thus  attainable. 

In  addition  to  the  literary  incentive  which 
Thoreau  gained  in  his  Harvard  residence,  there 
were  sundry  minor  influences  which  left  traces 
upon  his  character.  A  young  man  of  his  temper 
ament,  proud,  stoical,  critical,  thoughtful,  with  a 
marked  independence  and  lack  of  affability,  how 
ever  sterling  his  character,  however  sensitive  his 
dormant  affections,  is  unlikely  to  make  friends  in 
large  numbers  among  his  teachers  or  classmates. 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         71 

They  recalled  his  eccentricities  rather  than  his 
abilities.  One  college  acquaintance  remembered 
that  Thoreau  always  wore  a  dark  green  coat, 
"perhaps  because  the  college  authorities  required 
black."  Thoreau  was  in  no  sense  gregarious,  he 
was  combative  rather  than  affable  in  general  so 
ciety,  his  classmates  knew  him  slightly  and  awa 
kened,  as  has  many  a  class  before  and  since,  to  a 
tardy  realization  that  they  had  included  a  true, 
though  unrecognized,  genius.  He  did  form,  how 
ever,  a  few  strong  friendships,  while  he  seems  to 
have  cherished  a  proud,  delicately  concealed,  class 
sentiment.  Charles  Stearns  Wheeler,  from  Lincoln, 
near  Concord,  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  scholars 
of  this  class  of  183T.  With  him  Thoreau  became 
associated  in  many  ways;  he  was  an  important 
influence  in  the  later  Walden  experience.  In  the 
Emerson-Carlyle  letters,  the  former  refers  to  this 
young  student  who  acted  as  assistant  editor  of 
Carlyle's  American  editions  :  "  Stearns  Wheeler  is 
very  faithful  in  his  loving  labor  and  has  taken  a 
world  of  pains  with  the  sweetest  smile." 

The  few  scattering  references  to  Thoreau's  col 
lege  life  in  his  letters  and  journals  are  interesting 
and  suggestive.  In  "Walden"  he  questions  the 
economic  side  of  college  with  a  view  to  its  pro 
portionate  results.  He  probably  refers  to  his  own 


72         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

secluded  experience  when  he  says:  "The  really 
diligent  student  in  one  of  the  crowded  hives  of 
Cambridge  college  is  as  solitary  as  the  dervish  in 
the  desert."  To  live  economically  and  yet  live,  not 
play  life,  seems  to  him  the  desideratum  for  the 
college  student.  He  would  have  economy  applied 
to  practical  life ; — "  Even  the  poor  student  studies 
and  is  taught  only  political  economy,  while  that 
economy  of  living  which  is  synonymous  with  phi 
losophy  is  not  even  sincerely  professed  in  our  col 
leges.  The  consequence  is,  that  while  he  is  reading 
Adam  Smith,  Eicardo,  and  Say,  he  runs  his  father 
in  debt  irretrievably."  Thoreau's  own  expenses, 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  dollars  according 
to  the  catalogue  of  the  time,  involved  careful  re 
trenchments  both  from  his  aunts  and  his  own  family 
circle.  He  must  have  been  precluded  thus  from 
certain  social  privileges  even  had  his  nature  allured 
him  thither.  He  also  received  a  small  scholarship. 
During  the  winter  months  of  1835-6,  he  taught 
school  at  Canton,  Massachusetts,  and  here  studied 
German  and  imbibed  Transcendentalism  at  the 
home  of  Kev.  Orestes  Brownson  of  Brook  Farm 
fame.  In  his  interesting  study  of  this  community, 
Mr.  Lindsay  Swift  has  emphasized  many  traits  of 
Brownson.  He  was  a  zealous  social  reformer,  rad 
ical  in  all  ideas  of  government,  labor  and  religion ; 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         73 

a  man  of  broad  scholarship  and  an  enthusiasm 
which  too  often  became  pugnacity.  Reflecting  the 
teachings  of  Godwin,  Owen  and  Bentham,  he  was 
ever  exploiting  some  new  "  dissatisfaction,"  a  qual 
ity  which  caused  him  much  unpopularity  at  Brook 
Farm.  He  found  final  rest  in  Catholicism.  In 
"  The  Convert "  he  has  doubtless  analyzed  his  own 
character  with  conceit,  yet  truth ; — u  I  was  and  am, 
in  my  natural  disposition,  frank,  truthful,  straight 
forward,  and  earnest ;  and,  therefore,  have  had,  and 
I  doubt  not  shall  carry  to  the  grave  with  me,  the 
reputation  of  being  reckless,  ultra,  a  well-meaning 
man,  perhaps  an  able  man,  but  so  fond  of  para 
doxes  and  extremes,  that  he  cannot  be  relied  on, 
and  is  more  likely  to  injure  than  serve  the  cause  he 
espouses."  Biographers  have  been  content  to  merely 
mention  Thoreau's  residence  at  the  home  of  Brown- 
son  but  it  deserves  more  emphasis.  While  his 
practical,  balanced  mind  would  reject  many  extrav 
agances  of  thought  and  scheme,  indulged  by  the 
elder  man,  yet  the  young  college  boy  must  have 
been  influenced  by  the  radical  ideas,  constantly  in 
stilled,  and  their  roots  may  have  been  subtly  opera 
tive  in  Thoreau's  later  disquieting  and  extreme 
views  on  politics  and  church. 

The  class  of  1837  included  some  gifted  men,  among 
them   Eichard   Henry  Dana,  John   Weiss,  Henry 


74         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

Yose,  Samuel  Treat,  Charles  Stearns  Wheeler,  and 
others.  From  scattered  class  records  and  memorials 
may  be  gleaned  a  few  memories  of  Thoreau  by  his 
classmates  and  one  or  two  personal  confessions. 
Of  his  yearnings  for  Concord  he  wrote  in  a  class- 
book  ; — "  Immured  within  the  dark  but  classic  walls 
of  a  Stoughton  or  a  Hollis,  my  spirit  yearned  for 
the  sympathy  of  my  old  and  almost  forgotten 
friend,  Nature."  Again,  with  one  of  those  rare 
glimpses  into  his  deeply-hidden  affections,  he  wrote, 
— "  Think  not  that  my  classmates  have  no  place  in 
my  heart, — but  that  is  too  sacred  a  matter  even  for 
a  class-book."  One  of  the  most  familiar  portraits 
of  Thoreau  as  a  college  student  has  been  given  by 
his  classmate,  John  Weiss,  the  poet-reformer.  In 
an  article  in  The  Christian  Examiner  for  Juty, 
1865,  he  recalls  the  traits  of  Thoreau, — his  fondness 
for  poetry,  his  outward  coldness,  his  "  moist  hand 
clasp,"  and  the  gray-blue  eyes  always  upon  the 
ground,  "as  his  grave  Indian  stride  carried  him 
down  to  University  Hall."  Weiss  was  especially 
impressed  with  the  complacency  which  was  one  of 
Thoreau's  lifelong  traits, — "You  might  as  well 
quarrel  with  the  self-sufficiency  of  a  perfect  day  in 
Nature,  which  makes  no  effort  to  conciliate,  as  with 
this  primitive  disposition  of  his." 

During  his   senior    year   Thoreau   was   ill  and, 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         75 

doubtless,  "  his  stubborn  independence,"  mingled 
somewhat  with  lassitude,  caused  failure  to  main 
tain  his  usual  rank.  Reference  to  this  is  in  a  letter 
from  President  Quincy  to  Emerson,  quoted  in  Mr. 
Sanborn's  life  of  Thoreau.  Despite  the  complaints 
of  his  instructors  regarding  his  indifference,  his 
president  reiterates  his  "  respect  for  and  interest  in 
him."  There  seems  scanty  reason  for  the  hint  that 
the  faculty  may  have  "  had  other  grounds  for  dis 
trust  in  Thoreau's  case,"  based  merely  on  a  survi 
ving  letter  from  his  classmate,  Peabody, — a  char 
acteristic  collegian's  account  of  the  excitements  of 
those  days,  riots  in  the  classrooms  of  lax  or  unpopu 
lar  tutors.  Peabody  would  probably  recite  such 
frolics  in  detail  to  his  sick  friend,  for  they  formed 
his  "news,"  but  one  can  scarcely  infer  that  the 
recipient  of  the  letter  "  had  a  mind  too  ready  to 
wards  such  things  to  please  the  learned  faculty  of 
Cambridge."  No  one  familiar  with  Thoreau's 
traits  as  boy  or  man  can  reconcile  complicity  in 
such  pranks  with  his  serious,  reserved  nature. 
Mr.  Weiss  distinctly  emphasizes  the  withdrawal  of 
Thoreau  from  such  college  adventures :  "  Thoreau 
disappeared  while  our  young  absurdity  held  its 
orgies,  stripping  shutters  from  the  lower  windows 
of  the  buildings,  dismantling  recitation  rooms, 
greeting  tutors  and  professors  with  a  frenzied  and 


76         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

groundless  indignation  which  we  symbolized  by 
kindling  the  spoils  of  sacked  premises  on  the  steps. 
It  probably  occurred  to  him  that  fools  might  rush 
in  where  angels  were  not  in  the  habit  of  going. 
We  recollect  that  he  declined  to  accompany  several 
fools  of  this  description,  who  rushed  late,  all  in  a 
fine  condition  of  contempt,  with  Corybantic  ges 
tures,  into  morning  prayers, — a  college  exercise 
which  we  are  confident  was  never  attended  by 
angels." 

A  letter  from  another  classmate,  James  Kichard- 
son  of  Dedham,  refers  cordially  to  their  friendly 
relations  and  Thoreau's  absence,  a  natural  infer 
ence,  from  "  Mr.  Quincy's  Levees  "  and  the  enter 
tainments  of  the  class.  In  this  letter  is  also  refer 
ence  to  Thoreau's  "  part "  in  the  "  performances  " 
of  Commencement.  Whatever  had  been  his  delin 
quencies,  he  regained  sufficient  rank  to  have  place  in 
the  Commencement  conference.  Significant  were 
his  utterances  upon  the  theme,  "  The  Commercial 
Spirit,"  at  this  early  time  in  his  life  before  he  had 
felt  the  influence  of  his  later  philosopher-friends. 
Emphasizing  as  his  key-note  "  freedom  of  thought 
and  action,"  he  urged  elevation  of  purpose  and 
spirit :  "  Let  men,  true  to  their  natures,  cultivate 
the  moral  affections,  lead  manly  and  independent 
lives  ;  let  them  make  riches  the  means  and  not  the 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         77 

end  of  existence,  and  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  the 
commercial  spirit.  The  sea  will  not  stagnate,  the 
earth  will  be  as  green  as  ever,  and  the  air  as  pure." 
"  After  college, — what  ?  "  was  a  perplexing  ques 
tion  to  the  young  man  in  Thoreau's  time,  even 
as  it  is  to-day.  Then  the  answer  was  far  more 
restrictive  and  final.  Had  financial  conditions 
favored,  Thoreau  was  unfitted  for  church  or 
medicine.  In  reading  his  volumes,  one  is  im 
pressed  often  by  his  keen,  logical  faculty;  the 
suggestion  has  arisen  that  his  mind,  trained  and 
broadened  by  legal  studies,  might  have  achieved 
brilliant  results.  His  philosophy  which  opposed 
existing  government  and  religion,  however,  had 
been  heralded  in  college  days,  and  the  innate 
love  for  poetry  and  nature,  as  exclusive  enthusi 
asms,  were  barriers  against  concentrated  study  of 
law,  even  if  opportunity  had  offered.  Probably 
Thoreau's  name  would  have  been  added  to  that 
already  long  list  of  authors  who  attempted  law  to 
leave  it  soon  for  their  chosen  profession,  literature. 
At  that  time,  however,  an  author  or  a  naturalist 
had  no  sure  entrance  to  public  regard  nor  could 
he  expect  any  adequate  income.  "Whatever  may 
have  been  the  family  ambitions  for  Thoreau,  he 
seems  to  have  adopted  the  profession  of  brother 
and  sisters,  and  the  year  after  graduation  was 


78         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

seeking  a  school.  Positions  did  not  come  and  he 
remained  at  home  to  renew  his  friendships  with 
his  loved  Concord  meadows  and  woods.  He  now 
began  his  journals.  In  the  first  journal,  or  day 
book,  are  a  few  laconic  items  about  his  life  at 
this  time : — "  was  graduated  in  1837 ;  kept  town 
school  a  fortnight  that  year;  began  the  big  red 
journal  October,  1837 ;  found  my  first  arrow-head, 
fall  of  1837 ;  wrote  a  lecture  (my  first)  on  society, 
March  14,  1838,  and  read  it  before  the  Lyceum, 
in  the  Mason's  Hall,  April  11,  1838 ;  went  to 
Maine  for  a  school  in  May,  1838 ;  commenced 
school  in  the  Parkman  House  in  the  summer  of 
that  year."  ("  Familiar  Letters,"  p.  4.) 

It  was  during  that  fortnight  of  public  school- 
teaching  that  the  conflict  came  between  his  ideas 
of  discipline  and  those  of  the  school-committee. 
Again,  he  declared  himself  prophet  of  later  ideas 
on  education.  It  has  been  asserted  that  Thoreau's 
school  was  visited  by  a  committeeman  who  discov 
ered  that  the  new  teacher  did  not  believe  in  the 
ferule  as  a  persuasive  and  educative  medium. 
Declaring  that  thus  alone  could  discipline  be  main 
tained,  the  irate  visitor  demanded  that  Thoreau 
should  adopt  the  time-honored  custom.  Thus  re 
duced  to  defiant  obedience,  the  teacher  feruled 
several  scholars,  including  the  family  maid  of  the 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         79 

Thoreaus,  and  then,  in  disgust,  resigned  his  posi 
tion.  One  of  the  pupils,  thus  favored,  still  lives  in 
Concord,  near  the  scene  of  action,  the  old  brick 
schoolhouse,  now  Free  Mason's  Hall. 

There  seem  to  have  been  two  possible  opportu 
nities  for  the  graduate,  in  quite  opposite  geograph 
ical  sections,  during  the  spring  of  1838.  A  letter 
from  President  Quincy  suggested  a  school  in  Alex 
andria,  Yirginia.  Dr.  Jarvis,  a  Louisville  physician 
and  friend  of  the  Thoreaus,  encouraged  both  John 
and  Henry  to  come  south  for  schools  and  they 
planned  such  a  trip,  as  some  letters  testify.  The 
arrangements  did  not  succeed,  however,  and  the 
second  attempt  to  find  a  school  in  Maine  also 
proved  futile.  Thoreau  did  not  show  entire  com 
placency  during  this  season  of  vexatious  waiting. 
Is  there  any  greater  trial  for  a  youth  all  eager  to 
test  his  powers  against  the  world  ?  His  friend, 
Henry  Yose,  then  in  New  York,  wrote, — "You 
envy  my  happy  situation,  and  mourn  over  your 
fate,  which  compels  you  to  loiter  about  Concord 
and  grub  among  clam-shells."  In  recompense, 
however,  the  letter  refers  to  "other  sources  of 
enjoyment,  among  them  the  fairer  portion  of  the 
community  in  Concord."  Henry,  like  his  brother 
and  sisters,  had  part  in  the  social  life  of  the  town 
during  these  years,  walking,  boating,  and  enjoying 


8o         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

the  evenings  of  games  and  music.  A  visitor  to 
the  family  wrote, — "  At  present  Mr.  Thoreau's  four 
children  are  at  home — all  very  agreeable  young 
people,  with  whom  I  have  many  pleasant  walks." 

In  July,  1838,  Henry  Thoreau,  after  frustrated 
hopes  for  schools  in  west  and  east,  opened  a  little 
home-school  in  the  Parkman  House,  which  stood  in 
the  triangular  space  now  fronting  the  Public 
Library.  This  was  then  the  home  of  the  Thoreau 
family.  His  letters  to  John,  included  in  Mr.  San- 
born's  collation,  evidence  the  fact  that,  for  a  time 
after  the  opening  of  the  school,  he  was  content, 
even  gay  and  happy.  "  I  am  in  school  from  eight 
to  twelve  in  the  morning  and  from  two  to  four  in 
the  afternoon.  After  that  I  read  a  little  Greek  or 
English,  or,  for  variety,  take  a  stroll  in  the  fields. 
We  have  had  no  such  year  for  berries  this  long 
time  ;  the  earth  is  actually  blue  with  them.  High 
blueberries,  three  kinds  of  low,  thimble,  and  rasp 
berries  constitute  my  diet  at  present.  (Take  notice, 
— I  only  diet  between  meals.)  Among  my  deeds 
of  charity,  I  may  reckon  the  picking  of  a  cherry- 
tree  for  two  helpless  single  ladies  who  live  under 
the  hill ;  but,  in  faith,  it  was  robbing  Peter  to  pay 
Paul, — for  while  I  was  exalted  in  charity  towards 
them,  I  had  no  mercy  on  my  own  stomach.  Be  ad 
vised,  my  love  for  currants  continues.  ...  I  have 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         8l 

four  scholars  and  one  more  engaged."  During  the 
next  two  years  the  school  flourished,  and  the  two 
brothers  became  partners,  taking  their  rooms  in 
the  old  academy  building.  Undoubtedly,  these 
teachers  introduced  many  progressive  ideas  in  edu 
cation.  One  afternoon  each  week  they  took  their 
pupils  for  a  walk  to  learn  nature-facts.  On 
another  day  careful  attention  was  given  to  compo 
sition  and  the  reading  of  simple  classics,  in  place  of 
the  insipid  primers  and  "  recitations  "  so  in  vogue 
at  that  time.  The  pupils  also  shared  all  lectures 
of  importance  on  literature,  history,  phrenology, 
etc.,  which  came  to  Concord.  A  boy  pupil  wrote 
in  a  letter,  which  has  been  loaned  to  me, — "  Went 
to  a  lecture  from  Mr.  Emerson  in  the  evening.  It 
was  on  literature.  I  was  not  at  all  interested.  He 
is  a  tall  man  with  piercing  blue  eyes."  Senator 
Hoar,  who  was,  for  a  time,  one  of  Thoreau's  pupils, 
has  testified  to  his  popularity  among  the  village 
children.  "The  boys  were  all  fond  of  Henry 
Thoreau.  ...  He  was  very  fond  of  small  boys 
and  used  to  take  them  out  with  him  in  his  boat, 
and  make  bows  and  arrows  for  them,  and  take 
part  in  their  games.  He  liked  also  to  get  a  number 
of  the  little  chaps  on  a  Saturday  afternoon  and  go 
for  a  long  walk  in  the  woods.  .  .  .  We  used  to 
call  him  ( Trainer  Thoreau,'  because  the  boys  called 


82         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

the  soldiers  '  trainers,'  and  he  had  a  long,  measured 
stride  and  an  erect  carriage  which  made  him  seem 
something  like  a  soldier,  although  he  was  short  and 
rather  ungainly  in  figure." 

For  use  in  this  book  there  has  been  loaned  a 
journal  of  a  resident  pupil  at  the  Thoreau  school. 
The  subtle  revelations  of  the  home-life,  as  well  as  the 
studies,  afford  strong  group  pictures.  Especially, 
the  efficient,  cheerful  services  of  Mrs.  Thoreau  for 
her  family  and  the  pupils  stand  forth  in  uncon 
scious,  vivid  outlines.  I  quote  some  excerpts  which 
will  require  no  explanation  :  "  Saturday,  to  Wai- 
den  and  Goose  Pond  where  we  heard  a  tremendous 
chirping  of  frogs.  It  has  been  disputed  whether 
the  noise  was  caused  by  the  frogs  so  we  were  very 
curious  to  know  what  it  was.  Mr.  Thoreau,  how 
ever,  caught  three  very  small  frogs,  two  of  them  in 
the  very  act  of  chirping.  While  bringing  them 
home  one  of  them  chirped  in  his  hat.  He  carried 
them  to  Mr.  Emerson  in  a  tumbler  of  water.  They 
chirped  there  also.  On  Sunday  morning  we  put 
them  into  a  barrel  with  some  rain-water  in  it.  He 
threw  in  some  sticks  for  them  to  rest  on.  They 
sometimes  rested  on  these  sticks ;  sometimes  crawled 
up  the  side  of  the  barrel.  ...  At  night  we 
heard  the  frogs  peeping  and  on  Monday  morning 
they  were  nowhere  to  be  seen.  They  had  probably 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         83 

crawled  out  of  some  hole  in  the  cover  of  the  barrel 
and  made  for  the  river,  as  Mrs.  Thoreau  affirmed 
that  when  she  heard  them  in  the  night  their  voices 
seemed  to  recede  in  that  direction."  In  the  same 
exact  and  thoughtful  tone  are  records  of  trips  for 
wild  flowers,  sweetbriars,  or  pine  knots,  practical 
lessons  in  anatomy,  and  ornithology,  and  share  in 
the  cultivation  of  the  garden.  The  pupils  had 
social  pleasures,  as  well  as  studies  and  excursions 
for  specimens.  Tea-parties  and  picnics  are  men 
tioned.  One  interesting  entry  reads  ; — "  After 
school  Mrs.  T.,  Aunt,  Mr.  H.  T.  and  I  went  to  Mr. 
Alcott's.  His  little  girl  comes  to  our  school.  I 
had  the  honor  of  carrying  some  yeast  in  a  bottle 
for  Mrs.  Alcott."  There  is  careful  recital  of  the 
food,  in  true  schoolboy  style,  including  a  feast  of 
clams  in  the  pupil's  room,  in  which  John  partici 
pated.  Very  naive  is  the  record  of  "  April  2d.  Is 
Fast  Day.  We  had  very  inappropriately  the  best 
breakfast  we  have  had  since  I  came  here,  consisting 
of  flapjacks.  I  went  to  meeting  all  day  and  to  an 
antislavery  lecture  by  Mr.  Woodbury  in  the 
evening." 

In  a  letter  from  this  same  pupil  is  reference  to 
the  boat  built  by  the  Thoreau  brothers,  made 
famous  by  "  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack 
Rivers."  This  brief  vacation,  eagerly  planned,  was 


84         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

in  the  late  summer  of  1839.  With  the  boat  built 
by  their  own  manual  skill,  and  with  supplies  from 
their  own  garden,  they  were  independent  and  blithe 
in  mood.  In  "  A  Week  "  are  sundry  allusions  to 
the  Concord  friends  to  whom  they  did  not  wave 
farewells, — a  characteristic  touch  of  non-conform 
ity.  They  sounded  their  gun,  however,  as  a  final 
salute  when  they  had  passed  from  sight.  The 
survey  of  the  late  meadow-flowers,  polygonum, 
Gerardia,  neotia,  ends  with  a  somewhat  expanded 
comment  on  the  "  large  and  conspicuous  flowers  of 
the  hibiscus,  covering  the  dwarf  willows  and 
mingled  with  the  leaves  of  the  grape,  and  we  wished 
that  we  could  inform  one  of  our  friends  behind  of 
the  locality  of  this  somewhat  rare  and  inaccessible 
flower  before  it  was  too  late  to  pluck  it."  They 
did  find  a  messenger  and  the  beautiful,  brilliant 
hibiscus  moscheutos  came  to  this  friend,  Miss  Pru 
dence  Ward,  who,  with  her  mother,  visited  for 
many  years  in  Concord,  ever  welcome  guests  and 
friends  of  Thoreau's  aunts  and  mother.  Mrs.  Ward 
was  the  widow  of  Colonel  Joseph  Ward  of  Revolu 
tionary  fame,  and  to  the  letters  of  this  mother  and 
daughter  this  volume  is  largely  indebted  for  much 
new  material  on  the  home-life  of  the  Thoreau 
family.  The  granddaughters  of  Mrs.  Ward  now 
live  in  Spencer,  Massachusetts,  in  a  rare  treasure- 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         85 

house  of  historical  and  literary  mementoes.  Miss 
Ward,  like  the  Thoreau  family,  delighted  in  botany ; 
she  was  also  an  artist  of  true,  innate  ability. 
Among  some  of  her  sketches  which  have  been  pre 
served  is  a  fine  study  in  color  of  this  very  hibiscus, 
with  its  vivid  roseate  hue.  In  a  letter  written 
during  September,  1839,  she  refers  to  this  excursion 
of  the  brothers.  In  the  same  letter  are  these  signifi 
cant  sentences ; — "  I  suppose  C.  told  you  of  the  very 
pleasant  visit  we  had  from  Ellen.  We  have  also 
heard  from  there  directly  by  J.  T.  J.  enjoyed  him 
self  very  well  with  Ellen  and  the  boys." 

Ingenuous  and  natural  as  are  these  references 
they  illumine  a  very  important  incident  in  the  life 
of  Henry  Thoreau.  There  has  ever  lingered  a 
romantic  haze  about  this  period  of  his  manhood; 
perhaps  one  may  regret  that  the  probing  public  of 
to-day  has  divulged  and  exposed  his  heart-secret. 
The  extract  from  the  letter  above  quoted  em 
phasized  the  family  opinion  that  John  was  devoted 
to  this  young  girl,  whose  family  was  closely  related 
to  the  Thoreaus  by  ties  of  friendship,  and  that 
Henry's  sentiment,  if  such  existed,  was  completely 
hidden.  Among  the  detached  items  in  the  pupil's 
journal,  already  mentioned,  is  a  subtle,  intuitive 
entry, — his  discovery  of  Ellen's  initials  cut  on  the 
red  bridge,  "  between  Mr.  J.  and  Mr.  H.  Thoreau, 


86         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

which  bore  dates  1830  and  1835."     As  suggestive, 
also,  is  the  next  boyish  sentence, — "Mr.  Henry's 
initials  were  cut  very  neatly  and  deep."     Henry's 
undoubted  love  for  this  young  girl  was  noble  in  its 
purity  and  renunciation  and  it  has  tinted  with  its 
ideal  light  all  his  later  heart-life,  and  given  rare 
spirituality  to  his  words  upon  love  and  marriage. 
Mr.  Burroughs  shows  scanty  insight  into  a  deep, 
silent  nature  like  Thoreau's  when  he  says  of  this 
self-abnegation, — "  It  doubtless  cost  him  less  effort 
than  the  same  act  would  have  cost  his  more  human 
brother."     I  have  seen  a  photograph  of  this  woman, 
loved  so  tenderly  by  both  John  and  Henry  ;  in  later 
life,  the  face  had  retained  matchless  beauty  and 
serenity.     Sophia's   letters   to   her,   too  sacred  to 
print,  witness  her  affectionate  interest  in  the  entire 
family  as    long    as  any  member  survived.      She 
married  a  clergyman  and  lived  a  happy,  quiet  life 
of  service  to  her  large  family  and  her  parish.     She 
has  recently  died  at  a  ripe,  revered  age.     May  the 
world  be  content  to  hallow  the  memory  and  respect 
the  silence  of  this  noble  woman ! 

Emerson  once  stated  that  Thoreau's  poem,  "  Sym 
pathy,"  which  appeared  in  The  Dial  in  1840,  had 
reference  to  this  loved  one  under  guise  of 

'  •  a  gentle  boy 
Whose  features  all  were  cast  in  virtue's  mould." 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         87 

Doubtless  the  supposition  arose  from  the  sentiment 
of  the  ninth  stanza, — 

"  Eternity  may  not  the  chance  repeat ; 

But  I  must  tread  my  single  way  alone, 

In  sad  remembrance  that  we  once  did  meet, 

And  know  that  bliss  irrevocably  gone." 

While  his  romance  may  have  suggested  this 
thought,  the  explanation  of  the  subject  of  the  poem 
seems  strained  and  unlikely.  Thoreau  hated  subter 
fuge  in  any  form  and  his  love-poems  were  concealed 
at  this  time,  not  printed,  in  full  accord  with  his 
temperament.  His  family,  on  the  contrary,  have 
explained  that  "  the  gentle  boy "  was  the  brother 
of  Ellen,  a  lad  of  eleven  years,  with  refined,  noble 
character,  later  a  resident  pupil  at  the  Thoreau 
school.  Henry  was  deeply  interested  in  the  boy 
but  failed  to  win  the  cordial  friendship  given  to  the 
less  reserved,  and  more  sunny,  John.  The  poem 
was  written  after  the  boy  had  visited  the  Thoreau 
family.  His  brother  George  was  somewhat  envious 
of  the  honor  paid  to  his  elder  companion,  so  he 
begged  Thoreau  to  write  and  dedicate  a  poem  to 
him.  The  light,  doggerel  verses  in  answer  have 
not  appeared  in  print,  save  in  an  English  magazine ; 
— the  bluebirds  that  give  motive  to  the  stanzas  had 
become  identified  with  the  Thoreau  home  and  are 
referred  to  in  many  letters.  In  any  criticism  upon 


88         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

these  simple  verses  one  must  recall  that  they  were 
designed  for  a  boy  of  seven  years,  and  belong  to 
the  juvenile  literature,  at  that  time  scanty  and 
prim. 

"  In  the  midst  of  the  poplar  that  stands  by  our  door 

We  planted  a  bluebird's  box, 
And  we  hoped  before  the  summer  was  o'er, 
A  transient  pair  to  coax. 

il  One  warm  summer  day  the  bluebirds  came, 

And  lighted  on  our  tree; 
But  at  first  the  wanderers  were  not  so  tame, 
But  they  were  afraid  of  me. 

"  They  seemed  to  come  from  the  distant  south 

Just  over  the  Walden  Wood, 
And  skimmed  along  with  open  mouth, 
Close  by  where  the  bellows  stood. 


"  Methinks  I  had  never  seen  them  before, 

Nor  indeed  had  they  seen  me; 
Till  I  chanced  to  stand  by  our  back-door, 
And  they  came  to  the  poplar-tree." 

Mingled  with  the  reserve  of  Thoreau  was  ever  a 
strong,  basal  affection  and  the  sentiments  of  a  poet. 
At  this  time,  when  he  was  twenty -three  years  old, 
the  heart-sentiment  was  near  the  surface  and  re 
quired  only  cultivation,  rather  than  repression,  to 
cause  quite  a  different  development  of  his  entire 
nature.  The  years  from  1839  to  1842  are  very  im- 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         89 

portant  in  the  evolution  of  his  emotional  and  phil 
osophical  traits.  They  were  the  happiest  years  of 
active,  buoyant  life,  they  brought  him  his  deepest 
sentiments  and  his  keenest  griefs,  and  they  also 
gave  him  direct  contact  with  his  most  influential 
friends.  His  emotional  nature  seems  to  have  suf 
fered  "  arrested  development  "  after  the  experiences 
of  these  years.  Circumstances,  in  rapid  succession, 
interfered  with  the  expansion  of  his  happy  emo 
tions;  other  incidents  of  environment  caused  a 
resort  to  nature  and  philosophy  to  aid  in  the  re 
pression  and  endurance  of  disappointment ;  his  new- 
made  friends  fostered  the  extreme  ideals  of  trans 
cendental  thought  on  the  abstract  problems  rather 
than  the  amenities  of  life. 

Before  turning  to  those  later  influences,  which  pre 
pared  for  his  climactic  experience  at  Walden,  atten 
tion  is  called  to  one  poem  which  recorded  the 
memory  of  his  love  and  suggested  the  possibilities 
of  gentleness  and  expansive  emotions  which  a  happy 
issue  might  have  brought  into  his  later  life.  In 
the  second  section  of  "  A  Week  "  the  "  elastic  and 
crystalline  air  "  brings  a  reminiscence,  followed  by 
the  poem  generally  entitled  in  collections,  "  To  the 
Maiden  in  the  East."  It  has  been  claimed  that  the 
poem  was  addressed  to  his  friend,  Mary  Eussell, 
afterwards  Mrs.  Marston  Watson,  of  Plymouth. 


go         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

Without  disputing  this  personal  dedication,  one 
must  recognize  in  the  lines  a  sentiment  deeper  than 
friendship.  It  radiates  the  romantic  fervor  of  Tho- 
reau  during  those  years  when  his  love  awakened 
and  then  became  submerged.  The  imagery  and 
melody  are  preeminent : 

11  It  was  a  summer  eve, 
The  air  did  gently  heave 
While  yet  a  low-hung  cloud 
Thy  eastern  skies  did  shroud; 
The  lightning's  silent  gleam, 
Startling  my  drowsy  dream, 
Seemed  like  the  flash 
Under  thy  dark  eyelash. 

"  Still  will  I  strive  to  be 
As  if  thou  wert  with  me, 
Whatever  path  I  take, 
It  shall  be  for  thy  sake, 
Of  gentle  slope  and  wide, 
As  thou  wert  by  my  side, 
I'll  walk  with  gentle  pace, 
And  choose  the  smoothest  place, 
And  careful  dip  the  oar, 
And  shun  the  winding  shore, 
And  gently  steer  my  boat 
Where  water-lilies  float, 
And  cardinal-flowers 
Stand  in  their  sylvan  bowers." 

In  the  extracts  from  Thoreau's  journal,  during 
these  years  from  1839-1841,  are  a  few  subtle  refer 
ences  to  his  disappointments  and  his  manly  cour 
age.  January  20,  1841,  he  wrote, — "Disappoint- 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         91 

merits  make  us  conversant  with  the  nobler  part  of 
our  nature.  It  will  chasten  us  and  prepare  us  to 
meet  accident  on  higher  ground  next  time." 

As  mentioned  in  the  review  of  John's  life,  the 
two  brothers  enlarged  their  classes  and  taught  in 
the  Concord  Academy  from  1839-1841.  Though 
this  was  a  very  brief  period  of  the  tentative  years 
of  Henry  Thoreau's  life,  and  it  represented  all 
of  his  direct  school-teaching,  yet,  in  a  broad  sense, 
his  entire  influence,  widely  and  subtly  extended, 
was  that  of  a  teacher  and  the  trend  of  his  mind  was 
assertive  and  pedagogical,  though  rarely  pedantic. 
His  aim  throughout  life  was  to  teach  the  value  and 
messages  of  Nature,  in  her  full  meaning..  The  long 
walks,  in  which  he  delighted  to  include  the  chil 
dren  of  the  village  no  less  than  of  his  school,  were 
really  matchless  lessons  in  nature-observation.  To 
each  individual  child  he  would  give  some  special 
attention  or  rouse  some  specific  enthusiasm  in 
flower  or  habits  of  bird  and  insect.  Not  alone 
in  personal  experiment,  as  a  means  of  teach 
ing,  but  also  in  the  use  of  the  story,  as  the 
most  potent  educative  method,  Thoreau  was  a 
prophet  and  example  to  these  later  decades.  With 
the  insight  of  a  modern  pedagogue  he  realized  the 
need  of  training  the  imagination,  so  largely  starved 
during  the  first  century  of  American  school-life. 


92         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

The  children  of  the  Emerson  household,  and  others 
within  his  environment,  have  recalled  the  marvel 
ous  skill  with  which  he  would  narrate  stories  from 
mythology,  history  and  classic  poems,  or  would 
feed  their  knowledge  and  fancy  alike  by  recital  of 
Indian  legends  and  customs.  With  the  true  instinct 
of  a  teacher  he  found  exhaustless  pleasure  and 
profit,  throughout  life,  in  the  comradeship  of  young 
minds,  even  when  their  wisest  elders  offered  coun 
ter-attractions.  Mr.  Albee,  in  his  recent  "Ke- 
membrances  of  Emerson,"  recalls  the  memorable 
day  spent  at  the  Emerson  home  where  Thoreau 
was  an  inmate  and  where  he  devoted  himself  dur 
ing  the  entire  evening  to  the  children  and  corn- 
popping. 

When  Thoreau  abandoned  teaching  in  1841  he  ac 
cepted  an  invitation  to  become  one  of  the  Emerson 
household ;  he  was  there  from  April,  1841  to  May,  1843 
and  again  for  a  year,  during  the  absence  of  Emer 
son  in  England  in  184Y-8.  This  arrangement,  often 
misinterpreted,  in  each  case,  seems  to  have  been  at 
Mr.  Emerson's  request,  though  its  benefits  to  Tho 
reau  were  evident.  A  Concord  friend  of  both 
families,  in  recent  allusion  to  the  subject,  said, — 
"  It  was  a  favor  on  Thoreau's  part  to  go  to  Mr. 
Emerson's  home  and  remain  with  his  family."  The 
relations  between  the  men  had  become  friendly,  al- 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         93 

most  intimate.  Emerson  found  the  younger  man 
an  inspiration  to  nature-study  and  also  a  practical 
adviser  and  assistant.  To  Carlyle  lie  had  already 
written  of  this  young  poet  "  full  of  melodies  and  in 
ventions."  Again,  he  paid  him  full  tribute, — "  And 
he  is  thus  far  a  great  benefactor  and  physician  to 
me,  for  he  is  an  indefatigable  and  skilful  laborer." 
He  attended  to  the  business  affairs  of  the  house 
hold,  he  supervised  and  planted  the  gardens  and 
waste  lands,  and  acted  for  his  host  in  many  matters 
connected  with  the  editorship  of  The  Dial.  All 
readers  of  Emerson's  journal  recall  his  frank  con 
fessions  of  dismay  at  tasks  of  husbandry.  Little 
Waldo's  famous  comment, — "Papa,  I  am  afraid 
you  will  dig  your  leg,"  is  sufficient  commentary 
upon  his  lack  of  skill  with  garden  tools.  He  en 
joyed  walks  which  "cleared  and  expanded  the 
brain,"  but  he  revolted  from  the  patient,  slow 
"  stoopings  and  scrapings  and  fingerings "  which 
left  him  "  peevish  and  poor-spirited."  In  contrast 
was  the  light-hearted  skill  of  Thoreau  as  a  gar 
dener. 

Further  discussion  of  Thoreau's  friendship  with 
the  members  of  the  Emerson  home  will  be  reserved 
for  the  chapter  upon  his  friends  but  one  must  note 
the  formative  influences  of  these  years  of  residence 
as  house-inmate  in  one  of  the  most  intellectual  and 


94         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

stimulative  homes  in  America.  Here  he  studied 
and  wrote,  some  of  his  poems  and  studies  finding  a 
receptacle  in  The  Dial.  He  also  gave  occasional 
lectures  and  had  part  in  the  Alcott  Conferences. 
In  a  letter  to  her  husband,  Mrs.  Emerson  mentions 
one  of  the  Conversations  where,  in  argument, 
"  Henry  was  brave  and  noble ;  well  as  I  have  al 
ways  liked  him,  he  still  grows  on  me."  Thus,  with 
opportunities  for  manual  exercise  among  the  trees, 
vines,  and  flowers  that  he  loved,  and  with  the 
mental  expansion  furnished  by  acquaintance  with 
the  poets  and  philosophers  who  came  to  the  Emer 
son  home,  Thoreau  was  happy  and  appreciated. 
The  interchange  of  services  was  entirely  reciprocal. 
Dr.  Edward  Emerson  has  declared  that "  the  presence 
of  such  a  friendly  and  sturdy  inmate  as  Thoreau  was 
a  great  comfort."  In  the  letters  of  Thoreau  to 
Emerson  are  many  warm  and  graceful  acknowl 
edgments  of  their  kindness,  "  a  gift  as  free  as  the 
sun  or  the  summer,  though  I  have  somewhat 
molested  you  with  my  mean  acceptance  of  it." 

A  double  grief,  however,  came  to  Thoreau  and 
Emerson  during  the  winter  of  1842, — an  experience 
which  brought  at  first  stultifying  despond  and  later 
calm  acquiescence  to  Thoreau's  soul.  In  a  letter  to 
Mrs.  Brown,  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Emerson,  in  March, 
1842,  he  refers  to  these  joint  events  of  sadness,  the 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         95 

deaths  of  John  Thoreau  and  Waldo  Emerson.  With 
tender  memory  of  his  brother,  he  recounts  the  strange 
calm  brought  to  him  as  he  listened  to  a  m  usic-box  soon 
after  John's  death,  and  recalls  the  steadfast  rotation 
of  the  seasons,  the  songs  of  the  birds  and  the  gentle 
flow  of  the  river,  until  he  can  write  with  peaceful 
philosophy,  "  the  everlasting  serenity  will  appear 
in  this  face  of  God,  and  we  will  not  be  sorrowful  if 
it  is  not."  The  letter  shows  a  deep,  controlled 
grief  and  a  groping,  yet  undaunted,  faith  suggest 
ive  of  passages  of  "  In  Memoriam."  With  delicate 
beauty  he  says  of  the  death  of  little  Waldo, — "  He 
died  as  the  mist  rises  from  the  brook,  which  the 
sun  will  soon  dart  his  ray  through.  Do  not  the 
flowers  die  every  autumn  ?  He  had  not  taken  root 
here."  ("  Familiar  Letters,"  p.  48.) 

Thoreau's  ambitions  for  a  future  life  of  author 
ship,  with  the  necessary  leisure  to  develop  and  ex 
press  his  thought,  had  shown  early  in  life  and  had 
been  fostered  by  his  service  on  The  Dial.  An  op 
portunity  offered  in  1843  for  him  to  tutor  the  son 
of  Mr.  William  Emerson,  at  Castleton,  Staten 
Island.  As  this  arrangement  would  introduce  him 
to  New  York  litterateurs  and  editors,  he  took  the 
position  and  remained  there  about  six  months.  His 
letters  record  his  cordial  relations  with  all  the 
Emerson  family  but  the  change  did  not  prove 


96         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

beneficial.  Hawthorne  mentions  in  his  note-books 
that  one  reason  for  Thoreau's  removal  to  New  York 
was  poor  health.  His  last  illness  had  several  pre 
monitory  symptoms  in  attacks  of  bronchitis  during 
these  earlier  years.  In  letters,  he  mentions,  briefly 
as  ever,  "his  tenacious  sickness,"  colds,  lethargy, 
bronchitis.  He  formed  a  friendship  with  Horace 
Greeley,  destined  to  be  of  much  practical  aid  later ; 
he  also  saw  and  admired  the  elder  Henry  James  and 
his  stalwart,  sincere  manhood.  It  was  evident  that 
New  York  men  who  met  Thoreau  regarded  him  as 
a  representative  of  the  Transcendentalists,  in  truth, 
as  one  of  their  expert  logicians.  He  had  published 
"Walk  to  Wachusett"  in  the  Boston  Miscellany 
and  a  few  other  articles  for  which,  he  wrote,  he 
"  was  awaiting  a  shower  of  shillings."  He  must  have 
met  many  discouragements  as  well  as  kindnesses  from 
New  York  publishers  in  these  earlier  decades  of 
American  literature.  He  decides, "  on  the  whole,  how 
ever,  it  is  a  very  valuable  experience."  With  a  droll 
survey  of  the  few  magazines  and  their  contributions 
"  which  cost  nothing  and  are  worth  no  more,"  he 
adds,—"  they  say  there  is  a  Lady's  Companion  that 
pays, — but  I  could  not  write  anything  companion 
able."  He  enjoyed  the  libraries,  he  studied  the 
crowds,  he  frequented  the  shore  and  interviewed 
the  seamen.  It  was  under  this  environment  that 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         97 

he  wrote  "  The  Fisher's  Boy,"  with  strong  self- 
revelation  and  vivid  picture,  one  of  the  poems 
deemed  worthy,  by  Mr.  Stedman,  of  a  place  in  his 
American  Anthology : 

a  My  life  is  like  a  stroll  upon  the  beach, 

As  near  the  ocean's  edge  as  I  can  go  ; 
My  tardy  steps  its  waves  sometimes  o'er  reach, 
Sometimes  I  stay  to  let  them  overflow. 


"  I  have  but  few  companions  on  the  shore, 

They  scorn  the  strand  who  sail  upon  the  sea  ; 
Yet  oft  I  think  the  ocean  they've  sailed  o'er 
Is  deeper  known  upon  the  strand  to  me. 

"  The  middle  sea  contains  no  crimson  dulse, 

Its  deeper  waves  cast  up  no  pearls  to  view  ; 
Along  the  shore  my  hand  is  on  the  pulse, 
And  I  converse  with  many  a  shipwrecked  crew." 

There  are  good  reasons  to  believe,  from  letters 
sent  to  Thoreau,  that  Emerson  and  Channing,  per 
haps  other  friends,  expected  he  would  gain  some 
literary  work  in  New  York  and  remain  there 
several  years.  Perhaps  his  impatient  attitude  to 
wards  nebulous  chances  in  authorship  proved  one  of 
the  first  disappointments  to  Emerson.  Thoreau 
surely  lost  faith  in  future  success  in  New  York  and 
returned  to  Concord  in  the  autumn  of  1843.  He 
reiterates  in  his  letters  his  constant  outlook  for 
schools  for  himself  and  Helen.  None  were  found 


98         THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION 

and  the  day-book  tells  the  simple  story  of  the  next 
year, — "Made  pencils  in  1844;  Texas  house  to 
August  29, 1850."  These  two  references  show  that 
the  poet-naturalist  spent  the  year  before  his  Walden 
experiment  in  mechanical  work,  or,  as  he  loved  to 
express  the  thought,  became  "Apollo  serving 
Admetus."  Especially  did  his  soul  revolt  at  the 
portion  of  the  story  told  by  Euripides  where  the 
lofty-minded  Phoebus  is  condemned  to  drudge  for 
the  selfish,  sordid  Admetus.  It  must  not  be  in 
ferred  that  Thoreau  scorned  manual  work,  rather 
was  it  a  part  of  his  creed,  but  he  yearned  for  the 
leisure  to  develop  also  the  higher  faculties;  he  too 
had 

"The  mind  of  man  and  all  that's  made  to  soar  !  " 

Always  skilful  and  exact  in  crafts,  it  is  narrated 
that  he  once  gained  a  certificate  for  making  the 
best  pencil  then  produced.  He  declared  that  he 
would  make  no  more,  since  he  had  reached  perfec 
tion,  though  probably  he  desisted  because  he  at. 
tained  to  higher  ideals  for  his  life.  It  is  significant, 
however,  that  he  did  return  to  the  trade  later, 
whenever  the  family  needs  required. 

The  second  entry  for  this  year  suggests  another 
fact  of  interest.  "  The  Texas  house,"  to  which  the 
family  moved,  was  built  almost  entirely  by  father 


THE  YEARS  OF  PREPARATION         99 

and  son.  The  name  is  somewhat  mystical ;  an  ex 
planation  was  recently  given  to  me  by  an  old  Con 
cord  resident.  There  was  a  large  white  star,  near 
the  station,  and,  as  this  was  the  time  of  agitation 
over  the  admission  of  Texas,  "  the  lone  star  state,'* 
a  colloquialism  arose  giving  the  name  of  Texas  to 
that  part  of  the  town  beyond  the  significant  star. 

To  this  point  the  life-history  of  Thoreau  seems 
composed  of  trivial  yet  tentative  experiences,  not 
unlike  those  of  many  young  men  whose  temper 
ament  and  vicissitudes  bring  a  series  of  disappointing 
trials.  Conscious  of  this,  he  had  confronted  the 
query,  Should  his  life  become  a  failure  because  he 
could  not  adapt  it  to  circumstances  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  should  he  create  and  compel  circumstances  to 
satisfy  his  needs,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  ? 
He  seemed  to  face  two  irreconcilable  necessities, — 
a  sufficient  income  for  his  physical  wants  on  the 
one  side,  and  a  no  less  urgent  demand  for  leisure  to 
study  and  write,  to  satisfy  the  intellectual  and  po 
etic  cravings.  Confronting  this  dilemma,  he  decided 
to  put  to  the  test  one  phase  of  his  transcendental 
philosophy,  the  simplification  of  life, — an  ideal  con 
stantly  urged  in  his  earlier  letters.  The  result  was 
the  unique  development  gained  from  the  next  two 
years  in  the  Walden  woods. 


The  Walden  Experiment 


CHAPTER  IY 

THE    WALDEN    EXPERIMENT 

THE  methods  of  modern  scholars  happily  blend 
induction  and  deduction.  With  analysis 
keen  and  delicate,  which  current  science  applies  to 
all  phases  of  life,  there  is  joined  the  careful  syn 
thesis  of  these  component  elements  before  the  ulti 
matum  of  criticism  is  reached.  In  past  history  and 
biography,  there  was  a  proneness  to  overrate  certain 
prominent  facts  in  character-analysis  and  overlook 
more  integral  but  less  obvious  features.  Modern 
historians  coalesce  the  major  and  minor  life-expres 
sions  of  an  individual  or  a  period.  The  result  of 
this  later  method  in  biography  has  been  especially 
corrective.  Greater  use  had  been  made  of  autobio 
graphic  journals  and  letters,  revealing  the  entire 
man,  less  has  depended  upon  partial  and  prejudiced 
conjectures. 

Until  very  recent  years  it  has  been  the  honest 
opinion  of  the  general  world  of  readers  that  Tho- 
reau  was  a  stoic  and  a  hermit.  Critics  have  sacri 
ficed  justice  to  cleverness,  they  have  delighted  to 

picture  him  as  an  American  Diogenes,  sitting  in  his 

103 


104         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

tub  of  Walden  sunlight  and  roused,  if  at  all,  to 
warn  all  outsiders  away  from  the  rays  of  his  special 
possession,  Nature.  The  much-exploited  incident  of 
his  Walden  life,  which  we  shall  regard  as  an  ex 
periment,  as  he  called  it,  represented  only  two 
years  and  a  half  of  his  forty-five  years.  It  has 
been  so  overemphasized  that  "  the  hermit  of 
Walden  "  has  become  his  world- wide  sobriquet ;  to 
many,  as  to  Dr.  Japp,  Thoreau  seemed  "an  odd, 
unaccountable  kind  of  person."  No  one  would  as 
sert  that  the  motives  of  critics  and  biographers 
have  been  due,  in  the  main,  to  intentional  injustice 
to  Thoreau ;  rather  has  there  been  a  desire  to  picture, 
in  the  most  dramatic  light,  one  of  the  most  unique 
and  romantic  episodes  of  modern  literary  history. 
A  mystical  charm  always  encircles  the  lives  of 
hermits  and  ascetics,  from  John  the  Baptist  and 
the  early  Essenes  to  Tristram  and  Eoger  Crab.  A 
far  greater  curiosity  has  centred  about  this  young 
recluse  of  modern  life,  who  came  from  and  returned 
to  a  happy  home,  who  preached  no  religious  creed 
or  social  scheme  but  who  found  in  his  life  at  Wal 
den  nucleus  for  a  volume  of  bright,  charming 
studies  of  nature,  society,  morality,  and  his  rela 
tion  to  all  three  factors.  The  close  student  of 
Thoreau's  life  and  records,  coupled  with  the  testi 
mony  of  friends  who  visited  him  at  Walden,  must 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         105 

recognize  that  this  experiment  was  a  natural  result 
of  his  environment  and  his  complex  nature.  Thus 
regarded,  the  episode  loses  much  of  that  outre  look 
which,  according  to  some  critics,  explains  the  real 
interest  in  his  life. 

The  intellectual  revolution  in  New  England, 
succeeding  the  movements  of  progress  in  politics 
and  literature  in  Europe  during  the  early  decades 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  had  two  sequential 
forms,  Unitarianism  and  Transcendentalism.  Dis 
tinct  as  was  each  in  direct  aim  and  result,  they  were 
allied  with  that  great  world-movement  of  liberty 
which  transformed  all  the  broader  aspects  of  life. 
Channing  preached  a  new,  fearless  gospel  of  mental 
freedom  in  religion,  an  appeal  to  reason  and  individ 
ual  conscience  rather  than  formulas.  Transcen 
dentalism,  with  relevant  changes  from  the  doctrines 
of  Kant,  Coleridge  and  Carlyle,  sought  to  gain  free 
dom  for  intellect, — to  discover  verities  by  reason 
and  intuition,  not  by  dogmas.  As  Unitarianism 
became  dogmatic  at  times  and  suffered  from 
divergent  and  extreme  teachings  tending  towards 
agnosticism,  so  Transcendentalism,  still  more  sus 
ceptible  to  emotional  excess,  often  submerged  its 
simpler,  nobler  ideals  beneath  much  extravagance 
and  mysticism.  In  the  application  of  idealism  to 
moral  conduct  and  in  the  emphasis  of  the  unity  of 


106         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

life  and  literature,  Transcendentalism,  despite  some 
chiaroscuric  phases,  became  for  many  years  one  of 
the  strongest  influences  upon  American  character 
and  letters. 

One  of  the  most  vital  and  practical  effects  of 
Transcendental  teaching  was  the  wish  to  devise 
means  to  simplify  life,  both  economically  and 
socially.  To  so  reduce  the  daily  wants  of  individual 
and  family  that  time  and  anxiety  might  be  saved 
and  greater  opportunities  given  for  education  of 
the  higher  facilities,  "  the  things  of  the  intellect  and 
soul," — this  represented  the  open  and  latent  pur 
pose  of  leaders  of  this  thought-movement.  Joined 
with  this  practical  desire  to  lessen  physical  demands 
and  financial  strain,  was  the  fontal  norm  in  the 
primal  philosophy  from  which  this  had  been  evolved, 
— "  the  return  to  nature,"  to  her  sanative  influence 
in  lieu  of  artificiality  and  luxury.  Mr.  Emerson,  in 
that  rhapsodic  essay  on  "  Nature,"  well  character 
ized  by  Carlyle  as  "  azure-colored,"  had  emphasized 
the  purifying  and  educative  effects  of  nature  on  the 
senses,  intellect,  morals  and  will.  He  always  ques 
tioned,  however,  the  utility  of  communal  schemes 
for  simplification  and  social  reform.  In  1840,  he 
wrote  to  Carlyle, — "  We  are  all  a  little  wild  with 
numberless  projects  of  social  reform ;  not  a  reading- 
man  but  has  a  draft  of  a  new  community  in  his 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         107 

waistcoat  pocket."  At  about  the  same  time  his 
sagacity  and  prudence  warned  these  Sequesters ; — 
"It  is  a  sign  of  our  times,  conspicuous  to  the 
coarsest  observer,  that  many  intelligent  and  relig 
ious  persons  withdraw  themselves  from  the  common 
labors  of  and  competitions  of  the  market  and 
caucus,  and  betake  themselves  to  a  solitary  and 
critical  way  of  living,  from  which  no  solid  fruit  has 
yet  appeared  to  justify  their  separation."  Ke- 
formers  and  individual  oddities  abounded  and  were 
attracted  to  Emerson's  home  in  great  variety. 
Vegetarians,  spiritualists,  mystics,  philosophers  of 
all  degrees  of  earnestness  and  charlatanism  came 
thither,  to  meet  Thoreau  and  the  other  friends  of 
Emerson,  to  leave  behind  often,  as  the  lasting  im 
press,  the  lack  of  that  quality  so  well  defined  by 
Emerson  as  "  the  saving  grace  of  common  sense." 

Many  critics  of  the  proposed  communities,  among 
them  Dr.  Ezra  Kipley  and  Mr.  Emerson,  failed  to 
understand  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  promoters, — not 
exclusion  but  inclusion.  If  these  sundry  settle 
ments  should  prove  stable,  they  were  to  furnish 
models,  like  Kuskin's  "  St.  George's  Guild,"  for  es 
tablishment  in  all  parts  of  America  of  agrarian 
communities,  presided  over  by  men  of  intellect  and 
philosophical  training.  These  experiments,  so 
numerous  in  America  from  1840  to  1850,  had  two 


lo8         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

general  forms, —  the  larger  number  were  com 
munities  for  families,  the  smaller  in  number  and 
lesser  known  were  individualistic.  Of  the  latter, 
Thoreau's  experiment  is  the  popular  example.  The 
wave  of  social  agitation  which  overran  America  at 
this  time  was  the  natural  sequence  of  the  teachings 
of  Lassalle  and  Fourier,  of  Southey,  Coleridge  and 
Godwin.  The  actual  experiments  of  Robert  Owen, 
on  his  proselyting  visit  from  England  twenty  years 
before,  had  included  a  short-lived  settlement  in 
Indiana.  The  Fourierian  Phalansteries  in  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  were  established  under 
the  guidance  of  William  Channing  and  Horace 
Greeley.  At  about  the  same  time  was  started  the 
still  existent  Oneida  Community. 

As  early  as  1835  there  had  gathered  in  New 
England,  with  centre  of  interest  at  Boston,  philoso 
phers  to  discuss  the  idealism  of  Kant,  Hegel  and 
Schelling  and  its  interpretations  in  the  writings  of 
English  authors.  To  these  abstract  phases  of  dis 
cussion  were  joined,  in  America,  zealous  arguments 
on  state,  church  and  society.  Here  smouldered 
reactionary  fires  against  both  the  Trinitarian  and 
the  Unitarian  forms  of  Puritanism.  Defiant  to  the 
Calvinistic  dogma  of  man's  inherited  depravity, 
were  doctrines  of  human  goodness  and  progress, 
emphasis  of  the  divinity  in  man  and  his  relation  to 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         109 

the  intuitive,  transcendent  life.  When  these  "  dis 
ciples  of  the  newness"  met  in  Boston  for  the 
symposium,  compared  by  Emerson  to  "going  to 
heaven  in  a  swing,"  the  public  gave  them  the  name 
of  "The  Transcendental  Club,"  though  it  is  still 
questioned  if  any  real  organization  existed.  James 
Freeman  Clarke  once  said  that  they  called  them 
selves  "  the  club  of  the  like-minded,  because  no  two 
thought  alike."  To  their  discussions  were  admitted 
Alcott,  Hawthorne,  the  Peabody  sisters,  Margaret 
Fuller,  Thoreau,  Weiss,  Bartol,  and  others,  in  ad 
dition  to  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  the  Ripleys, 
Emerson,  Brownson,  Hedge  and  James  Freeman 
Clarke.  As  an  evident  outcome  of  the  discussions 
for  simplifying  daily  routine  and  reforming  educa 
tional  methods,  came  the  Brook  Farm  community, 
with  its  varied  history  from  1841-1847.  Here  the 
Transcendental  Club  divided.  Emerson,  assured 
that  the  individual,  not  the  community,  must  be 
basal  in  all  reform,  never  eager  for  special  scheme 
or  method,  was  indifferent  to  such  communities,  as 
already  shown.  Ripley,  however,  determined  to 
apply  the  theories  which  he  had  imbibed,  pur 
chased  the  famous  farm  in  West  Roxbury  in  1840, 
planned  for  a  corporate  association,  and  attracted 
thither,  during  the  next  few  years,  many  noted  re 
formers  and  authors.  Emerson  enjoyed  visits  at 


110         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

Brook  Farm.  He  allowed  his  Dial  to  report  the 
life  there,  since  Margaret  Fuller  was  one  of  his 
editors  and  also  in  residence  at  the  community,  but 
he  was  never  influenced  to  identify  himself  with 
the  communal  life.  This  is  not  the  place  to  portray 
further  the  life  of  this  picturesque  settlement  with 
its  commingled  seraphic  thought  and  manual  work. 
Mr.  Lindsay  Swift,  in  his  admirable  study  of  Brook 
Farm,  records  that,  after  Alcott's  visits  and  his 
nebulous  symbolism,  "the  pie  was  always  cut  from 
the  centre  to  the  periphery,"  while  a  desire  for 
butter  was  couched  in  the  psychic  phrase, — "  Is  the 
butter  within  the  sphere  of  your  influence  ?  "  One 
fact  must  be  noted,  that  Brook  Farm,  as  originally 
conceived,  consisted  of  an  association  of  individual 
families.  The  later  influence  of  Albert  Brisbane, 
promulgator  of  Fourierism  and  communism,  was 
responsible  for  the  change  in  constitution  in  1844, 
which  made  it  a  Fourierian  Phalanx,  akin  to  the 
communities  at  Hoped  ale,  Northampton  and  the 
"  Ceresco,"  or  Wisconsin,  settlement. 

With  the  same  purpose  as  Brook  Farm,  but  with 
briefer  life,  was  the  experiment  of  Alcott  and  his 
English  friends,  Lane  and  Wright,  at  Harvard, 
Massachusetts.  This  plan  was  executed  in  1843, 
while  Thoreau  was  at  Staten  Island,  but  sundry 
references  to  it  are  in  the  letters  interchanged  with 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         ill 

Emerson  and  Lane.  In  The  New  England  Mag 
azine  for  April,  1900,  is  an  interesting  article  upon 
"The  Alcotts  in  Harvard,"  outlining  the  life  at 
"  Fruitlands."  The  sixteen  members  of  this  family 
lived  through  the  balmy  summer  "in  harmony  with 
the  primitive  instincts  of  man,"  when  fruit  and 
light  clothing  were  acceptable  amenities.  The  cold, 
dismal  winter  made  such  life  unendurable  and,  in 
dismay,  they  left  "Apple  Slump,"  as  Mrs.  Alcott 
called  the  home  that  had  proved  another  fiasco  for 
this  transmigratory  family.  Louisa  Alcott's  story, 
"  Transcendental  Wild  Oats,"  portrays  well  the 
mingled  joys  and  sorrows  of  the  time,  while  her 
little  poem,  "Despondency,"  expresses  the  gloom, 
yet  courage,  of  this  girl  of  eleven  years.  Alcott  in 
his  journal  gives  a  characteristic  comment  on  this 
and  similar  experiments, — "None  of  us  were  pre 
pared  to  actualize  practically  the  ideal  life  of  which 
we  dreamed." 

Thoreau  visited  "  Fruitlands  "  but  declined  to  be 
come  a  member  of  the  colony.  In  a  letter  to  him 
from  Lane,  June  7,  1843,  is  a  complimentary  hint 
which  doubtless  preceded  more  urgent  invitation. 
After  describing  the  general  topography  of  their 
farm  of  ninety  acres,  the  writer  says, — "On  the 
estate  are  about  fourteen  acres  of  wood,  part  of  it 
extremely  pleasant  as  a  retreat,  a  very  sylvan 


112         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

realization,  which  only  wants  a  Thoreau's  mind  to 
elevate  it  to  classic  beauty."  In  that  sentence  is 
suggestion  that  Thoreau  had  already  expressed  de 
sire  for  some  retreat,  some  "sylvan  realization." 
In  truth,  the  Walden  lodge  was  the  outcome  of  a 
long,  though  vague,  anticipation.  From  the  com 
munistic  settlements  of  the  time,  Emerson  and  Tho 
reau  both  held  aloof.  Emerson's  clear  foresight 
and  prudence  realized  their  futility  under  existent 
conditions ;  he  also  disapproved  of  their  restrictive 
character  which  seemed  to  him  undemocratic,  if  not 
unpatriotic.  He  was,  however,  sufficiently  im 
pressed  by  the  communistic  spirit  so  that,  in  1840, 
he  invited  the  Alcott  family  to  share  his  home  and 
urged  Mrs.  Emerson  to  further  simplify  their  do 
mestic  life  by  including  the  servants  at  the  family 
dining-table.  Mrs.  Emerson  thought  the  former 
plan  "  a  wild  scheme "  but  acquiesced.  Mrs.  Al- 
cott's  good  sense,  however,  prompted  her  refusal  to 
accept  such  unmeasured  hospitality.  The  efforts  at 
domestic  social  reform  also  proved  futile  because 
the  two  maids  were  quite  unwilling  to  join  the 
family  at  meals. 

Thoreau's  reasons  for  distrust  of  communism 
were  resident  in  his  antagonism  to  the  fundamental 
idea.  His  trend  of  mind  was  wholly  individualistic. 
He  was  never  a  disciple  of  communism,  as  living 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         113 

together  ;  he  did,  however,  advocate  cooperation,  in 
the  sense  of  working  together.  In  "  Walden  "  he 
says, — "  To  cooperate,  in  the  highest  as  well  as  the 
lowest  sense,  means  to  get  our  living  together." 
Deeply  influenced  by  the  reform  theories  of  his 
friends,  though  averse  to  their  schemes,  lacking  de 
pendent  home-ties,  with  his  independent  doctrine 
of  self-expansion  firmly  planted,  Thoreau  had  long 
planned  to  go  into  semi-retirement  for  study  of  na 
ture,  reflection  and  writing.  Already  he  had  tested 
his  powers  and  inclinations  and  had  so  far  "  found 
himself "  that  he  recognized  his  special  gifts  as 
nature-interpreter  and  poet.  To  more  fully  ob 
serve  her  forms  and  changes,  to  have  leisure  from 
sordid  tasks  for  calm  reflection,  he  wished  to  shut 
himself  within  some  isolated  retreat  there  to  educe  a 
philosophy  of  life.  In  the  Commencement  Confer 
ence,  already  mentioned,  he  had  said  ; — "  The  order 
of  things  should  be  somewhat  reversed ;  the  seventh 
should  be  a  man's  day  of  toil,  wherein  to  earn  his 
living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow ;  and  the  other  six 
his  Sabbath  of  the  affections  and  the  soul — in  which 
to  range  this  widespread  garden  and  drink  in  the 
soft  influence  and  sublime  revelations  of  nature." 
Thus  early  had  this  nebulous  fancy  haunted  him ! 
In  his  journal,  December  24,  1841,  is  recorded, — "  I 
want  to  go  soon  and  live  away  by  the  pond,  where 


114         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

I  shall  hear  only  the  wind  whispering  among  the 
reeds.  It  will  be  success  if  I  shall  have  left  myself 
behind.  But  my  friends  ask  what  I  will  do  when  I 
get  there,  —  will  it  not  be  employment  enough  to 
watch  the  progress  of  the  seasons  ? "  About  the 
same  time  are  vague  references  to  this  plan  of  his 
in  letters  from  C banning  and  Margaret  Fuller. 

This  desire  to  sequester  oneself  from  conflicting 
and  exacting  duties,  and  to  develop  the  mental  and 
religious  life,  was  no  uncommon  incident  of  that 
age  ;  indeed,  it  is  the  aspiration  of  many  individuals 
in  every  age.  All  sections  of  America  can  point  to 
some  "  hermitage  "  where  a  recluse  has  buried  him 
self  for  purposes  of  study  or  religion,  sometimes 
because  of  blighted  affection,  and  thus  has  become 
an  object  of  curiosity  to  the  community.  This  idea 
of  isolation  by  individuals  and  communities,  this 
return  to  simple  agrarian  life,  was  pervasive 
through  the  atmosphere  half  a  century  ago. 
Among  the  college  friends  of  Thoreau,  already 
noted,  was  Charles  Stearns  Wheeler,  whose  tragic 
death  in  Germany  in  1843,  was  a  great  grief  to 
Emerson  and  Thoreau.  His  home  was  in  Lincoln, 
four  miles  from  Concord,  and  in  1841-2,  that  he 
might  find  time  for  study  and  save  money  for 
foreign  travel,  he  built  a  shanty,  "a  woodland 
study,"  near  Flint's  Pond,  midway  between  Lin- 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         115 

coin  and  Concord.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Tho- 
reau  assisted  him  in  constructing  the  hut ;  Mr. 
Channing  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  Tho- 
reau  visited  Wheeler  there  for  six  weeks.  It  is 
sure  that  this  and  other  examples  of  the  time,  in 
retirement  for  study  and  economy,  greatly  influ 
enced  Thoreau  in  fostering  his  desire  for  a  tem 
porary  home  by  the  pond,  in  the  midst  of  nature's 
peaceful  beauty. 

Before  Walden  was  chosen,  he  wavered  for  a  time 
after  he  had  determined  to  build  a  lodge  some 
where.  In  a  letter  recently  seen,  is  this  reference 
under  date  of  1841, — u  I  am  sorry  for  Mr.  Henry's 
disappointment  about  his  farm."  Doubtless  this  is 
the  incident  told  in  breezy  style  in  the  early 
chapters  of  "  Walden," — the  effort  to  purchase  the 
Hollowell  farm  on  the  road  to  Nine  Acre  Corner, 
with  its  gray,  weather-beaten  building,  its  red 
maple  grove,  and  its  rabbit-knawed  apple-trees. 
With  semi-satiric  detail  he  explained ;  — "  The 
nearest  that  I  came  to  actual  possession  was  when 
I  bought  the  Hollowell  place,  and  had  begun  to 
sort  my  seeds,  and  collected  materials  with  which 
to  make  a  wheelbarrow  to  carry  it  on  or  off  with ; 
but  before  the  owner  gave  me  a  deed  of  it,  his 
wife, — every  man  has  such  a  wife, — changed  her 
mind  and  wished  to  keep  it,  and  he  offered  me  ten 


ll6         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

dollars  to  release  him.  JSTow,  to  speak  the  truth,  I 
had  but  ten  cents  in  the  world,  and  it  surpassed  my 
arithmetic  to  tell,  if  I  was  that  man  that  had  ten 
cents,  or  who  had  a  farm,  or  ten  dollars,  or  all  to 
gether.  However,  I  let  him  keep  the  ten  dollars 
and  the  farm  too,  I  had  carried  it  far  enough ;  or 
rather,  to  be  generous,  I  sold  him  the  farm  for  just 
what  I  gave  for  it,  and,  as  he  was  not  a  rich  man, 
made  him  a  present  of  ten  dollars,  and  still  had  my 
ten  cents,  and  seeds,  and  materials  for  a  wheel 
barrow  left.  I  found  thus  that  I  had  been  a  rich 
man  without  any  danger  to  my  poverty.  But  I 
retained  the  landscape,  and  I  have  since  annually 
carried  off  what  it  yielded  without  any  wheel 
barrow." 

The  choice  of  Walden  as  final  site  for  his  lodge 
was  probably  decided  by  two  dissimilar  agencies. 
As  he  tells  his  readers  one  of  his  earliest  memories 
was  a  ride  to  Walden  woods  and  a  fleeting,  childish 
wish  that  he  might  live  by  the  pond  there.  Later 
he  found  boyish  pleasure  in  idling  along  its  banks 
or  building  fires  to  attract  the  pouts  close  to  its 
edge.  Thus,  the  locality  was  associated  not  alone 
with  his  youth  but  also  with  the  memories  of  his 
brother.  The  second  decisive  circumstance  was  the 
purchase  by  Emerson  of  some  woodland  along  both 
shores  of  Walden,  to  supply  him  with  fire-wood  and 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         117 

also  give  him  a  sense  of  ownership  in  his  favorite 
walks.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  planned  to 
have  a  study  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  pond 
from  that  chosen  by  Thoreau.  No  place  about 
Concord  was  more  wildly  picturesque  and,  at  the 
same  time,  accessible  for  Thoreau's  experiment  than 
Walden.  Distant  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
town  centre,  it  is  reached  by  a  gradual  incline, 
bordered  by  brambles,  wayside  flowers  and  trees  of 
varied  kinds.  As  the  visitor  looks  across  the 
meadow  he  recalls  that  Thoreau  found  a  shorter 
path  to  the  homes  of  his  friends,  a  by-road  travers 
ing  the  fields  and  entering  the  main  road  just  be 
low  Emerson's  house  and  nearly  opposite  the 
"  Wayside,"  then  called  "  The  Hillside,"  and  at  that 
time  the  home  of  Alcott.  With  the  keen  eye  of  a 
resident  poet,  Thoreau  has  described  Walden  Pond, 
the  peculiar  clarity  and  varying  tints,  blue,  green, 
and  gray,  with  the  arching  hills,  from  forty  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  high. 

The  legends,  no  less  than  the  scenery,  attracted 
him  thither.  This  region,  now  consecrate  to  peace 
ful  memories,  was  earlier  a  place  of  uncanny  and 
gruesome  traditions.  It  was  an  Indian  haunt  and 
Thoreau  asserts  that  the  pond  may  have  been 
named  from  an  Indian  squaw,  Walden,  who  es 
caped  after  a  frightful  pow-wow  where  the  pro- 


Il8         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

fanity  was  so  extreme  that  there  was  an  earth 
quake  in  warning  and,  at  the  concussion,  the  stones 
rolled  down  the  hillside  and  thus  formed  the 
present  paved  shore.  He  also  suggests  another 
possible  derivation  ; — "  If  the  name  was  not  derived 
from  some  English  locality, — Saffron  Walden  for 
instance, — one  might  suppose  that  it  was  originally 
called  Walled-in-Pond."  Later,  it  was  the  encamp 
ment  of  a  band  of  outlaws  whose  evil  deeds  long 
frightened  the  Concord  farmers  and  whose  down 
fall  from  virtue  was  due  to  "  a  demon  not  distinctly 
named  in  old  mythology,  who  has  acted  a  promi 
nent  and  astounding  part  in  our  New  England  life, 
and  deserves  as  much  as  any  mythological  char 
acter,  to  have  his  biography  written  one  day ;  who 
first  comes  in  the  guise  of  a  friend  or  hired  man, 
and  then  robs  and  murders  the  whole  family, — 
New  England  Rum."  In  this  vicinity  also  lived 
for  many  years,  Zilpha,  the  noisy  witchlike  singer 
and  spinner,  and  her  descendant,  the  quiet,  yet 
awe-inspiring  sooth-sayer,  Zenda.  Senator  Hoar  re 
calls  a  tradition  of  his  boyhood,  told  by  one  Tommy 
Wyman  whose  hut  was  near  "Walden,  that  an 
Indian  doctor  dwelt  in  a  hidden  recess  near  the 
pond  and  would  seize  children  and  cut  up  their 
livers  to  make  medicines. 

Upon  the  north  shore  of  the  pond,  just  above  its 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         119 

cove,  Thoreau  selected  his  site  about  forty  yards 
from  the  water.  He  delighted  to  call  himself  a 
"squatter"  on  Emerson's  land,  for  this  nomadic 
term  well  suited  his  mood.  In  the  early  spring  of 
1845  he  associated  yet  another  friend  with  his  en 
terprise  by  borrowing  Alcott's  axe  to  hew  his 
timbers.  He  states,  with  grim  humor  and  exact 
ness  mingled,  that  he  returned  the  axe  sharper 
than  when  he  received  it.  Happily  he  spent  his 
days,  felling  and  shaping  and  joining  his  timbers, 
never  too  busy  to  note  each  sight  and  sound  of  na 
ture,  the  scream  of  the  Walden  owl,  the  move 
ments  of  the  pouts  in  the  water,  and  each  night  he 
returned  to  his  home.  At  last  the  frame  was  com 
pleted,  the  cellar  dug,  the  planks  bought  from  an 
Irishman's  shanty,  and  the  famous  little  lodge,  ten 
feet  by  fifteen,  with  its  snug  closet,  garret,  window, 
two  doors  and  fireplace,  was  raised  by  the  friendly 
assistance  of  Alcott,  Hosmer,  and  George  "William 
Curtis,  then  an  inmate  of  Hosmer's  home  and  an 
apprentice  on  his  farm.  With  graceful  tribute  to 
these  friends,  Thoreau  wrote  in  "  Walden  "  ; — "  No 
man  was  ever  more  honored  in  the  character  of  his 
raisers  than  I.  They  are  destined,  I  trust,  to  assist 
at  the  raising  of  loftier  structures  one  day."  The 
necessary  plain  furniture,  not  forgetting  the  desk 
and  small  looking-glass,  as  well  as  the  cooking 


120         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

utensils,  were  moved  thither,  his  boat  transferred 
to  the  cove,  and  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1845,  he  be 
came  resident  of  this  unique  home,  constructed  by 
himself  at  a  cost  of  $28.12^.  The  personal  work 
in  the  structure  of  the  house  had  for  him  a  romantic, 
as  well  as  economic,  interest ; — "  Who  knows  but  if 
men  constructed  their  dwellings  with  their  own 
hands  and  provided  food  for  themselves  and  fami 
lies  simply  and  honestly  enough,  the  poetic  faculty 
would  be  universally  developed  as  birds  universally 
sing  when  they  are  so  engaged.  But  alas  !  we  do 
like  cow-birds  and  cuckoos,  which  lay  their  eggs  in 
nests  which  other  birds  have  built  and  cheer  no 
traveler  with  their  chattering  and  unmusical 
notes."  As  the  tourist  stands  in  that  tiny  Thoreau 
room  at  the  Concord  Antiquarian  Hall  and  looks  at 
that  cot,  desk  and  chair  preserved  from  the  lodge, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  picture  the  interior  of  the  hut 
that  gave  opportunity  for  mental  inspiration  to  the 
poet  and  naturalist.  Mr.  S.  E.  Bartlett,  a  frequent 
visitor,  recalled  that  on  the  closet  door  was  a 
sketch  in  pencil  of  a  man  feeding  a  tame  mouse, 
an  appropriate  and  suggestive  decoration. 

Keference  has  been  made  to  this  encampment  at 
Walden  as  an  experiment ;  for  this  term,  we  have 
Thoreau 's  own  words,  at  least  twice  in  the  record 
of  his  life  there.  In  the  section  on  "  Shelter  "  he 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         121 

says, — "But  to  make  haste  to  my  own  experi 
ment  ; "  again,  he  concludes, — "  I  learned  this,  at 
least,  by  my  experiment ;  that,  if  one  advances  con 
fidently  in  the  direction  of  his  dreams,  and  en 
deavors  to  live  the  life  that  he  has  imagined,  he 
will  meet  with  a  success  unexpected  in  common 
hours."  In  retiring  thus  for  a  time  for  self- 
analysis  and  growth,  he  had  three  main  motives, — 
to  find  the  actual  cost  of  the  necessaries  of  civilized 
life,  to  gain  an  intimate  and  constant  acquaintance 
with  nature  at  all  seasons,  and  to  attend  to  what  he 
calls  "  some  private  business," — namely,  to  read, 
think,  and  record  his  observations,  reflections,  and 
practical  experiences.  He  had  a  tentative  belief 
that  his  special  aptitude  was  writing,  and  writing 
of  a  particular,  and  then  unusual,  trend, — the  pres 
ervation  of  poetic  and  philosophical  ideas  associ 
ated  with  nature-lore. 

The  residence  at  Walden  has  been  too  often 
misconstrued  both  as  regards  aim,  general  and 
personal,  and  also  his  actual  life  there.  Pro 
fessor  Gates,  in  a  recent  study  of  Wordsworth, 
has  said, — "  At  times  it  almost  seems  as  if  "Words 
worth  would  have  liked  to  have  all  men  and 
women  take  to  the  woods."  The  same  thought  has 
been  expressed  often  about  Thoreau  and  the  ques 
tion  has  been  raised  regarding  the  "  scheme  "  which 


122         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

he  proposed.  He  offered  no  scheme;  rather  he 
denied  such  intent  in  "  Walden  " ; — "  I  would  not 
have  any  one  adopt  my  mode  of  living  on  any  ac 
count  ;  for  beside  that  before  he  has  fairly  learned 
it  I  may  have  found  another  for  myself,  I  desire 
that  there  may  be  as  many  different  persons  in  the 
world  as  possible ;  but  I  would  that  each  one  be 
very  careful  to  find  out  and  pursue  his  own  way, 
and  not  his  father's  or  his  mother's  or  his  neighbor's 
instead."  Could  other  words  more  fully  proclaim 
his  individualism  and  disclaim  his  dogmatism? 
Could  any  words  more  fully  declare  that  this  resi 
dence  was  an  experiment  and  only  that?  In  a 
nugget,  he  summarized  his  purpose, — "  I  wished  to 
live  deliberately,  to  front  only  the  essential  facts  of 
life,  and  see  if  I  could  not  learn  what  it  had  to 
teach." 

Thoreau  thus  represented  the  theoretical  in 
quiries  of  the  Transcendentalists  regarding  the 
simplification  of  life  and  the  real  freedom  of  action 
and  will.  He  was,  also,  deeply  concerned  with  the 
practical  question  of  sufficient  income  to  maintain 
his  needs  and,  at  the  same  time,  give  him  leisure  to 
study  and  expand  mentally  and  spiritually.  With 
his  proud,  exact  disposition,  he  was  always  in 
dustrious  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  term,  and 
punctilious  about  debts.  He  had  tried  teaching, 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         123 

editing,  surveying,  pencil-making,  and  like  pursuits, 
but  he  found  these  occupations  so  confining,  with 
so  little  margin  for  the  free,  full  expression  of  his 
higher  nature,  that  he  felt  shriveled  and  rebelled 
against  such  mechanical  thraldom.  He  believed, 
and  proved  by  his  experiment,  that  a  student  who 
was  content  to  reduce  his  wants  to  the  lowest 
ratio,  who  would  combine  in  moderation  manual 
work  and  mental  improvement,  could  thus  secure 
the  greatest  blessings  of  life.  Like  our  Southern 
poet,  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne,  at  Copse  Hill,  he 
found  in  the  pine  retreat  invigoration  for  body  and 
spirit.  Here  he  would  experimentalize  with  the 
bugbear,  maintenance,  regarding  the  four  requisites 
of  life, — shelter,  food,  fuel,  and  clothing, — here  he 
would  expand  and  train  his  mind  and  soul. 

In  no  way  was  he  anxious  to  pose  as  a  hermit  or 
even  a  strict  recluse.  Nearly  every  day  he  walked 
to  the  village,  as  he  tells  us,  to  see  his  family  and 
friends  and  gather  the  news.  He  was  within  access 
of  any  real  service  which  he  might  render,  he  was 
a  popular  host,  and  his  life  there  as  elsewhere,  com 
mingled  "the  human  and  the  sylvan."  Among 
magazine  articles  that  exerted  a  modicum  of  unjust 
influence  during  his  life  was  that  in  Chamber's 
Journal,  November  21,  1857,  entitled  "An  Ameri 
can  Diogenes."  It  abounds  in  false  statements  and 


124         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

unjust  surmises ;  as  example,  "  he  lived  lazily  in  a 
hut,  in  a  lonely  wood,  subsisting  on  beans."  Dr. 
Edward  Emerson  has  said  of  this  Walden  incident, 
— "  His  own  Walden  camping  was  but  a  short  ex 
perimental  episode,  and  even  then  this  very  human 
and  affectionate  man  constantly  visited  his  friends 
in  the  village,  and  was  a  most  dutiful  son  and 
affectionate  brother." 

On  the  practical  side,  as  a  personal  experience, 
his  experiment  succeeded.  For  two  years  and  a 
half  he  lived  simply  and  healthily,  easily  meeting 
his  necessary  expenses  by  an  occasional  contract  for 
surveying  for  some  neighbor  farmer,  or  by  ex 
change  or  sale  of  his  beans  and  other  produce.  At 
the  same  time,  he  had  ample  leisure  for  study  and 
soul-expansion.  To-day,  one  finds  the  spot  near 
the  highway  where  he  sowed,  hoed,  and  harvested 
vegetables,  mainly  beans,  whose  rows  would  aggre 
gate  seven  miles,  planting  some  for  early,  some  for 
later,  harvest.  The  beans  became  associated  not' 
alone  with  pleasurable  physical  exercise  but  also 
with  constant  thoughts  of  lofty  scope.  The  bean 
was  a  classic  vegetable,  associated  with  myths  and 
heroic  history  as  well  as  with  Roman  agriculture. 
Perchance,  Thoreau's  poetic,  classic-trained  mind 
chose  this  distinctive  vegetable  for  this  reason,  but, 
more  probably,  his  Yankee  thrift  recognized  that 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         125 

the  soil  favored  this  commodity.  In  tribute  of 
memory,  he  wrote, — "I  came  to  love  my  beans, 
though  so  many  more  than  I  wanted.  They  at 
tached  me  to  the  soil,  and  so  I  got  strength  like 
Antaeus."  Here  spoke  the  poetic,  well-rounded 
workman,  who  knew  the  glory  of  true  work !  He 
had  close  rivals  in  the  woodchucks  who  "  nibbled 
for  me  a  quarter  of  an  acre  clean."  He  main 
tained,  however,  as  did  Lowell  of  birds  in  "  My 
Garden  Acquaintance,"  that  the  transgressors  had 
prior  rights  of  residence.  Though  he  caught  one 
in  a  trap,  and  confined  him  for  a  few  hours,  he  re 
fused  to  concur  in  any  sentence  more  severe  than 
transportation  two  miles  away  and  a  reprimand, 
accentuated  by  a  stick ;  so  the  woodchuck  departed 
in  quest  of  pastures  new.  Thoreau  was  often 
amused  at  the  comments  heard  from  the  roadway, 
as  travelers  passed  in  gigs,  "  with  elbows  on  knees 
and  reins  hanging  loosely  in  festoons."  "  Does  he 
live  there  ?  "  asks  the  black  bonnet  of  the  gray 
coat ;  "  and  the  hard-featured  farmer  reins  up  his 
grateful  dobbin  to  inquire  what  you  are  doing 
when  he  sees  no  manure  in  the  furrow,  and  recom 
mends  a  little  chip  dirt,  or  any  little  waste  stuff,  or 
it  may  be,  ashes  or  plaster."  "What  a  vivid 
silhouette !  Occasionally,  he  gave  variety  to  his 
diet  by  a  catch  of  fish  from  Walden  or  Flint  Pond. 


126         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

He  became,  however,  far  more  of  a  poet  and  ro 
manticist  in  his  attitude  towards  nature  during  his 
lake-encampment.  His  substitute  pleasure  for 
angling  was  reverie  in  his  boat  on  warm  evenings, 
"  playing  the  flute,  and  watching  the  perch,  which 
I  seemed  to  have  charmed,  hovering  around  me, 
and  the  moon  traveling  over  the  ribbed  bottom, 
which  was  strewed  with  the  wrecks  of  the  forest." 
This  Walden  experiment  had  potent  influence  in 
informing  and  educing  the  naturalist,  both  in 
scientific  and  poetic  qualities.  As  he  had  antici 
pated,  so  he  gained  that  intimate  and  wide  knowl 
edge  of  nature  as  is  only  revealed  to  one  who  lives 
in  familiar  communion  with  her  through  the  vary 
ing  changes  of  two  complete  seasons.  One  of  his 
acknowledged  purposes  was  to  note  the  actual  awa 
kening  of  spring  in  the  subtle,  secretive  phases  of 
soil,  woodland,  sap,  and  insect.  Eagerly  he  saw 
and  compared  the  primal  signs  of  release  from 
hibernation  of  all  vegetable  and  animal  life ;  with 
exultant  thrill  he  heard  the  first  note  of  bird,  the 
earliest  buzz  of  bee,  and  the  faintest  chirp  of  the 
frog.  In  truth,  as  one  traces  the  services  of  Tho- 
reau  as  naturalist,  he  realizes  that  the  first  true 
revelation  came  to  him  in  this  very  heart  of  nature, 
able  to  count  her  pulse-beats,  free  from  the  sordid 
distractions  and  cares  of  outside  life. 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         127 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  "  some  private  busi 
ness"  which  Thoreau  wished  to  accomplish  at 
Walden.  Mr.  Channing  is  inclined  to  regard  this 
as  a  restrictive  reference  to  writing  and  he  calls 
the  hut  "  a  writing-case."  It  is  true  that  he  already 
had  essayed  authorship  but  he  felt  the  need  of 
much  preparation.  His  unique  and  conscientious 
nature  sought  years  of  reflection  and  observation 
before  he  was  ready  to  say, — "  My  work  is  wri 
ting."  The  depth  and  complexity  of  his  thoughts 
on  nature  and  life  distinguish  his  volumes  from 
those  of  the  casual  author  of  books  on  similar 
themes.  At  Walden  during  the  winter  months  he 
studied  and  wrote,  reviewing  in  sad,  yet  placid, 
memory  the  week's  voyage  with  his  brother,  and 
preparing  the  journal  notes  and  interpolated 
thoughts  for  publication.  He  also  recorded  and 
compiled  his  observations  on  nature  before  and 
during  the  Walden  residence.  One  must  recall, 
however,  that  "  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and 
Merrimack,"  was  not  published  until  two  years 
after  he  left  Walden  and  that  the  book  which  com 
memorates  his  life  in  the  woods  was  deferred, 
partly  for  financial  reasons,  for  six  years  later. 
While  writing  formed  part  of  his  "private  busi 
ness,"  another  important  part  was  leisurely  reflec 
tion  and  philosophic  inquiry,  combined  with 


128         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

assiduous  study  of  the  best  classics,  preparation  for 
later  authorship  and  lectures.  In  the  section,  en 
titled  "  Higher  Laws,"  he  writes, — "  I  found  in  my 
self,  and  still  find,  an  instinct  towards  a  higher,  or, 
as  it  is  named,  a  spiritual  life,  as  do  most  men,  and 
another  towards  a  primitive,  rank  and  savage  one, 
and  I  reverence  them  both."  Here  was  resident 
the  dual  pleasure  in  this  Walden  experience.  It 
was  essentially  an  oasis  in  a  life  of  work.  It 
was  his  "  Sabbatical  year,"  a  dream  yet  a  realiza 
tion,  an  anticipation  yet  a  preparation  for  nobler, 
fuller  life.  The  life  had  been  opened,  the  time  of 
refreshment  and  preparation  must  end,  and  so  he 
explains, — "  I  left  the  woods  for  as  good  a  reason 
as  I  went  there.  Perhaps,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I 
had  several  lives  to  live,  and  could  not  spare  any 
more  time  for  that  one." 

Thus  far,  we  have  reviewed  Thoreau's  life  at 
Walden  in  its  subjective  aspect,  and  to  many 
readers  this  would  seem  the  only  possible  perspec 
tive.  If  we  refuse  to  consider  him  as  a  hermit, 
however,  another  opinion  must  prevail.  Speaking 
personally  he  declared, — "My  life  itself  was  be 
come  my  amusement  and  never  ceased  to  be  novel." 
The  words  are  as  applicable  to  the  objective  side  of 
the  life,  whose  novelty  has  been  the  subject  of  un 
ending  criticism.  In  "  Walden  "  he  offers  a  few 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         129 

glimpses  of  his  relations  with  humanity  during 
these  two  years.  Occasional  visitors  and  friends 
have  furnished  many  other  memories.  He  recites 
his  daily  life  from  the  early  morning  bath  in  the 
pond  and  the  floor-scrubbing,  with  all  the  furniture 
moved  out  in  the  sunlight,  to  his  quiet  evening 
hours  either  spent  at  his  lodge  or  in  the  town, 
from  which  he  returned  to  enjoy  the  whippoor- 
will  or  owl,  with  "  its  truly  Ben  Jonsonian  scream," 
or  to  listen  to  the  distant  whistle  of  the  train. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  his  Walden 
life  was  the  interchange  of  visits  with  his  family 
and  friends.  A  relative  who  often  spent  weeks 
with  the  Thoreau  family  has  recalled  their  custom 
to  visit  him  on  Saturday  afternoons,  carrying  some 
delicacies  of  cookery  which  he  always  accepted 
with  pleasure.  Frequently,  he  came  into  town  to 
have  dinner  or  tea  with  his  own  household  or  at 
the  homes  of  Emerson,  Alcott,  or  Hosmer.  At  the 
latter  hearth-side  he  spent  Sunday  evenings,  re 
turning  the  visit  which  the  farmer  and  some  of  his 
family  always  paid  Thoreau  Sunday  afternoons. 
Miss  Jane  Hosmer  kindly  narrated  to  me  her 
memories  of  these  visits  when,  as  a  child,  she  ac 
companied  her  father  to  the  famous  little  lodge, 
scrupulously  neat,  where  Thoreau  sat  at  his  desk, 
her  father  in  an  adjacent  chair,  and  the  children  on 


130         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

"  the  bunk,"  listening,  not  always  with  patience,  to 
the  extended  discussions  on  philosophy  or  Scan 
dinavian  mythology.  As  a  result,  she  gained  her 
primal  instruction  in  that  branch  so  that,  in  later 
years,  she  found  herself  compelled  to  translate 
Greek  and  Roman  myths  into  her  earlier  models  of 
Thor,  Woden,  and  Igdrasil. 

Thoreau  always  welcomed  sincere  visitors  and 
true  neighbors,  from  whatever  distance.  While  still 
hewing  his  timber,  he  attracted  an  occasional  ram 
bler  and  adds, — "  we  chatted  pleasantly  over  the  chips 
which  I  had  made."  To  him  "  Visitors  "  included 
animal  friends,  the  native  mice,  the  phoebe  and  the 
wasps.  In  the  same  chapter  on  his  visitors  he 
answers  the  suggestion  of  hermit,  saying ; — "  I 
think  that  I  love  society  as  much  as  most,  and  am 
ready  enough  to  fasten  myself  like  a  blood-sucker 
for  a  time  to  any  full-blooded  man  that  comes  in 
my  way.  I  naturally  am  no  hermit,  but  might 
possibly  sit  out  the  sturdiest  frequenter  of  the  bar 
room,  if  my  business  called  me  thither."  Doubt 
less,  he  inherited  some  of  the  Dunbar  loquacity,  for 
he  once  said, — "  I  love  dearly  to  talk,"  and  friends 
testified  to  his  wonderful  conversational  powers 
among  congenial  minds.  In  spite  of  such  general 
statements  and  the  addendum,  given  us  in  "Wai- 
den,"  that  at  one  time  he  had  "  twenty -five  or 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         131 

thirty  souls,  with  their  bodies,"  in  his  woodland 
home,  one  must  recognize  that  he  best  enjoyed  his 
part  as  host  when  he  required  "  the  two  chairs  for 
friendship  "  rather  than  "  the  three  for  society." 
He  could  stir  a  hasty-pudding  and  bake  a  loaf  of 
bread  with  one  guest,  though  if  twenty  came, 
"there  was  nothing  said  about  dinner."  With  an 
amusing  touch  of  sarcasm  on  the  housekeeping 
customs  of  his  time,  he  adds, — "  My  '  best '  room, 
however,  my  withdrawing  room,  always  ready  for 
company,  on  whose  carpet  the  sun  rarely  fell,  was 
the  pine  wood  behind  my  house.  Thither,  in 
summer  days,  when  distinguished  guests  came,  I 
took  them,  and  a  priceless  domestic  swept  the 
floor  and  dusted  the  furniture  and  kept  the  things 
in  order." 

Distinguished  guests  often  came;  sometimes, 
finding  their  host  absent,  they  left  a  visiting-card 
of  yellow  walnut  leaf,  appropriately  inscribed.  In 
addition  to  the  intellectual  friends  who  were 
frequent  callers,  Emerson,  Alcott,  Kipley,  Chan, 
ning,  and  others,  he  had  many  chance  visitors  of 
all  social  grades.  There  came  the  Canadian  wood- 
chopper  and  philosopher,  "a  true  Homeric  or 
Paphlagonian  man."  Hither  strolled  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls,  fishermen,  hunters,  poets, 
farmers,  doctors,  and  "uneasy  housewives  who 


132         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

pried  into  my  cupboard  and  bed  when  I  was  out." 
While  he  greeted  all  honest  visitors  with  "Wel 
come,  Englishmen,"  it  would  have  been  incompatible 
with  his  temperament  if  he  had  not  arraigned  the 
sham  visitors,  called  thither  by  prurient  criticism. 
With  grim  satire,  he  wrote ; — "  Finally,  there  were 
the  self-styled  reformers,  the  greatest  bores  of  all 
who  thought  that  I  was  forever  singing, 

This  is  the  house  that  I  built ; 
This  is  the  man  that  lives  in  the  house  that  I  built ; 

but  they  did  not  know  that  the  third  line  was 

These  are  the  folks  that  worry  the  man 
That  lives  in  the  house  that  I  built !  " 

At  one  time  an  impression  was  abroad  that  the 
Walden  hut  was  a  station  in  the  underground 
railway  for  fugitive  slaves,  but  this  error  has  been 
corrected  by  Colonel  Higginson.  Thoreau  men 
tions  one  "real  runaway  slave  among  the  rest, 
whom  I  helped  to  forward  towards  the  North 
Star." 

All  who  have  written  or  spoken  their  memories 
of  this  Walden  lodge  have  testified  to  its  neatness 
and  charm  and  the  quiet,  cordial  hospitality  of  its 
owner.  In  "  Walden  "  is  a  subtle  suggestion  of  a 
yearning  and  listening  for  "  the  visitor  who  never 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         133 

comes,"  and  again  confession  of  "  a  little  stagna 
tion,  it  may  be,  about  two  o'clock  in  the  after 
noon."  When  he  plastered  his  cabin  during  the 
first  autumn,  Channing  was  his  guest  for  a  fort 
night  ;  it  seems  unfortunate  that  he  has  not  given 
the  world  a  more  adequate  vision  of  such  phases  of 
the  life  of  his  friend.  In  the  series  of  poems,  com 
memorative  of  Thoreau,  "The  Wanderer,"  Chan 
ning  has  described  lovingly  the  interior  of  the  hut 
and  his  friend's  general  aspect.  The  use  of  the 
term,  hermit,  must  not  be  considered  literal,  for 
Channing  did  not  so  construe  Thoreau's  nature,  as 
many  passages  in  his  biography  witness : 

"  I  loved  to  mark  him, 
So  true  to  nature.     In  his  scanty  cabin, 
All  along  the  walls,  he  hid  the  crevice 
With  some  rustic  thought, — a  withered  grass, 
Choice-colored  blackberry  vines,  and  nodding  sedge 
Fantastically  seeded  ;  or  the  plumes 
The  golden-rod  dries  in  the  fall  ;  and  tops 
Of  lespedeza,  brown  as  the  Spanish  mane  ; 
And  velvet  bosses  quaintly  cut  away 
Off  the  compliant  birches,  of  whose  trunks 
This  hermit  blest  made  pillage." 

Joseph  Hosmer  recalled  a  Sunday  spent  at  Walden 
in  September,  1845,  "  as  pure  and  delightful  as  with 
my  mother."  From  the  spiritual  uplift  which  he 
received  he  descends  to  a  recital  of  the  dinner,  well- 
cooked  and  daintily  served. 


134         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

One  can  readily  imagine  the  religious  purity  of 
such  environment  as  that  of  Walden  when  "  every 
morning  was  a  cheerful  invitation  to  make  my  life 
of  equal  simplicity,  and  I  may  say  innocence,  with 
nature  herself."  With  his  deeply -rooted  religion, 
pantheistic  though  it  was,  and  his  free  solitary 
thought  and  action,  he  records,  "  My  days  were  not 
days  of  the  week,  bearing  the  stamp  of  any  heathen 
deity,  nor  were  they  minced  into  hours  and  fretted 
by  the  ticking  of  a  clock."  Such  assertion  throws 
light  upon  an  incident  related  to  me  by  a  friend  of 
the  Thoreaus,  an  unpublished  anecdote  which 
illumines  some  of  his  traits  and  his  frequent  mis 
interpretation.  His  mother  had  expressed  a  wish 
for  a  pine-tree  of  certain  size  for  the  yard  and 
Henry,  always  eager  to  give  pleasure  to  his  family, 
found  the  desired  tree  one  morning,  pulled  it  up  by 
the  roots,  and,  balancing  it  upon  his  shoulder, 
started  for  his  Concord  home.  Arrived  at  the  town- 
centre,  he  noticed  a  number  of  people  coming  out 
of  the  church  and  then,  for  the  first  time,  he  re 
membered  it  was  Sunday.  Fifty  years  ago,  in  a 
village  community,  such  disregard  of  the  Sabbath 
seemed  most  culpable,  both  to  Trinitarians  and 
Unitarians.  When  he  first  realized  his  position,  he 
might  have  stopped  at  any  house  on  the  road, 
"where  he  was  always  welcome,"  said  my  in- 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         135 

forinant,  but  any  such  concealment  or  device  would 
be  contrary  to  his  open,  sincere  nature.  With  good 
motive  he  had  started  to  bring  home  the  pine-tree 
and,  justifying  his  conscience,  he  sturdily  bore  his 
burden  past  the  church  amid  the  gaping,  horrified 
people  to  his  mother's  yard.  Of  course,  this  in 
cident,  like  many  another  in  his  life,  was  miscon 
strued  as  predetermined  defiance  of  custom,  and  he 
suffered  quietly  the  judgment  which  resulted, 
tenaciously  refusing  to  explain. 

Among  many  distorted  ideas  regarding  the  Wai- 
den  experiment,  one  of  the  most  flagrant  is  Mr. 
Lowell's  conclusion, — "  His  shanty  life  was  a  mere 
impossibility,  so  far  as  his  own  conception  of  it 
goes,  as  an  entire  independency  of  mankind." 
What  possible  evidence,  from  his  own  words  or 
those  of  his  friends,  is  there  for  the  assertion 
that  Thoreau  had  any  desire  to  establish  or  declare 
"  the  entire  independency  of  mankind  "  ?  Kecently, 
a  gentleman,  speaking  of  Thoreau  in  public,  but 
with  inadequate  knowledge  as  later  statements 
evidenced,  said,  with  a  half -sneer, — "  He  started  out 
to  live  without  any  aid  of  civilized  man  and  began 
by  borrowing  an  axe  and  setting  his  hut  on  another's 
land  without  paying  any  rental."  Such  have  been 
some  of  the  unfair  ideas  promulgated  by  Mr. 
Lowell  and  other  critics  who  would  not,  or,  at  least, 


136         THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

did  not,  read  "  Walden "  with  a  fair,  responsive 
mind.  His  distinct  denial  that  he  wished  to  form 
any  band  of  hermits  or  that  he  desired  to  suggest  a 
scheme  of  conduct,  has  already  been  quoted.  In 
the  early  chapters  of  his  life-record  at  Walden,  he 
comments  on  the  many  questions  asked  regarding 
his  life  there,  with  its  expense  and  details.  If  any 
one  could  gain  profit  by  his  experience  or  apply 
any  of  his  lessons,  it  would  be  the  student.  Hence 
he  addresses  the  book,  in  its  early  chapters,  especially 
to  "  poor  students.  As  for  the  rest  of  my  readers, 
they  will  accept  such  portions  as  apply  to  them.  I 
trust  that  none  will  stretch  the  seams  in  putting  on 
the  coat,  for  it  may  do  good  service  to  him  whom 
it  fits."  He  had  scanty  expectation  that  his  ex 
periment  would  be  followed  by  many  or  that  the 
hut  would  be  of  further  use  to  him  as  residence. 
He  made  no  effort  to  preserve  it  and  it  soon  suffered 
removal.  In  letters  to  Mr.  Emerson  are  sundry  ref 
erences  to  the  gardener,  Hugh  Whelan,  who  in 
1847,  "  has  his  eye  on  the  Walden  Agellum  and  who 
seeks  to  take  the  field  and  house  and  evolve  there 
from  a  garden  and  a  palace."  Hugh,  however,  had 
"  long  differences  with  strong  beer  "  and  his  magic 
anticipations  vanished  before  his  unsteady  habits, 
so  the  hut  became  the  property  of  a  farmer  who 
moved  it  on  the  old  Carlisle  road,  where  it  re- 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         137 

mained  a  granary  and  tool-house  until  a  few  years 
after  Thoreau's  death. 

There  have  been  some  experiments  modeled 
after  this  Walden  life  that  are  unrecorded  in  ac 
cessible  form,  but  the  most  familiar  was  the  en 
campment  at  Walden  in  1869-1870  of  a  young 
theological  student,  Edmund  Stuart  Hotham,  of 
New  York.  Here,  in  a  rude  cabin,  he  studied 
theology  and  is  referred  to  by  Channing  in  "  The 
Wanderer."  Among  many  readers  of  "  Walden  " 
none  have  gained  more  recent  notice  than  "A 
Victim  of  Thoreau,"  so  humorously  sketched  by 
Dr.  Charles  C.  Abbott  in  his  "Kecent  Kambles." 
In  a  woodland  stroll  he  met  this  "philosophic 
tramp  "  who  could  repeat  pages  of  "  Walden  "  but 
who  had  decided,  by  sad  experience,  that  "  Tho 
reau's  philosophy  won't  work."  Conversation  dis 
closed  the  fact  that  he  had  tried  the  Walden  plan 
with  improvements,  or  rather  with  omissions,  since 
energy  and  industry  seemed  lacking  in  his  plan. 
His  complaint  was  that  he  could  not  "  get  a  living  " 
by  passive  delight  in  nature  and  spasmodic  cultiva 
tion  of  a  bean-field. 

The  Walden  encampment  has  too  often  been  ex 
aggerated  as  well  as  distorted.  In  it  Thoreau  was 
neither  a  hermit  nor  a  misanthrope.  It  formed 
simply  a  climax  to  his  years  of  preparation.  Mr. 


138        THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT 

Salt  says,  with  force  and  succinctness, — "  He  was  a 
student  when  he  went  to  Walden;  when  he  re 
turned  to  Concord,  he  was  a  teacher."  His  resi 
dence  amid  the  elemental,  uplifting  forces  of  nature 
had  brought  him  temporal  health  and  happiness 
and  permanent  knowledge  of  nature  and  life  in  its 
simple,  fontal  issues.  In  the  woods  he  learned  the 
"  essential  facts,"  a  lesson  to  which  he  was  to  give 
expression  in  future  years.  No  expansion  of  this 
thought  could  equal  his  own  admirable  conclusion 
in  "  Walden  "  :— "  He  will  put  some  things  behind, 
will  pass  an  invisible  boundary;  new,  universal, 
and  more  liberal  laws  will  begin  to  establish  them 
selves  around  and  within  him ;  or  the  old  laws  be 
expanded,  and  interpreted  in  his  favor  in  a  more 
liberal  sense,  and  he  will  live  with  the  license  of  a 
higher  order  of  beings.  In  proportion  as  he 
simplifies  his  life,  the  laws  of  the  universe  will  ap 
pear  less  complex,  and  solitude  will  not  be  solitude, 
nor  poverty  poverty,  nor  weakness  weakness.  If 
you  have  built  castles  in  the  air,  your  work  need 
not  be  lost ;  that  is  where  they  should  be.  Now 
put  the  foundations  under  them." 

Viewed  from  the  focus  of  to-day,  which  often 
yearns  for  but  seldom  attains  real  privacy  with 
nature  and  simplification  of  life,  this  seclusion  of 
Thoreau  has  a  far  different  aspect  from  that  of  its 


THE  WALDEN  EXPERIMENT         139 

contemporaneous  decade.  It  was  then  one  of  many 
experiments  for  reforming  and  simplifying  con 
ditions  of  society,  for  applying  transcendental 
ideas.  It  was  entirely  parallel  to  the  communities 
and  sociological  ventures  of  the  age.  It  was  the 
experiment  of  a  philosopher  who  had  no  affiliations 
with  communal  plans  but  who  sought  their  aim, — 
expansion  of  all  the  faculties  and  reduction  of  the 
demands  of  society  to  the  lowest  terms.  With 
reference  to  the  Walden  incident,  as  revelation  of 
the  character  of  Thoreau,  no  words  are  more 
pertinent  than  the  simple,  sincere  lines  of  his  poet- 
friend  applied,  as  were  many  of  Channing's  stanzas, 
to  both  Emerson  and  Thoreau :  — 

"  More  fitting  place  I  cannot  fancy  now 
For  such  a  man  to  let  the  line  run  off 
The  mortal  reel,  such  patience  hath  the  lake, 
Such  gratitude  and  cheer  are  in  the  pines. 
But  more  than  either  lake  or  forest's  depths 
This  man  hath  in  himself  ;  a  tranquil  man, 
With  sunny  sides  where  well  the  fruit  is  ripe, 
Good  front,  and  resolute  bearing  to  this  life, 
And  some  serener  virtues  which  control 
This  rich  exterior  prudence  ;  virtues  high, 
That  in  the  principles  of  things  are  set. 
Great  by  their  nature  and  consign'd  to  him, 
Who,  like  a  faithful  merchant  does  account 
To  God  for  what  he  spends,  and  in  what  way." 


The  Years  of  Expression 


CHAPTER  Y 

THE   YEAKS   OF   EXPRESSION 

IT  is  not  difficult  to  assert,  with  seeming  evidence 
of  proof,  that  Thoreau's  life,  brief  and  unique, 
consisted  entirely  of  years  of  preparation  for  the 
expression  which  never  came.  His  mere  life-inci 
dents,  read  by  a  casual  eye,  seem  trivial,  vacillating 
experiments  while  his  life  has  often  been  accounted 
a  failure  in  achievement  of  any  definite  aims.  One 
may,  however,  well  recall  the  lesson  of  "  Eabbi  Ben 
Ezra,"-- 

"  For  thence,— a  paradox 
Which  comforts  -while  it  mocks, — 
Shall  life  succeed  in  that  it  seems  to  fail." 

The  fifteen  years  of  life  after  the  Walden  experi 
ment  witnessed  no  remarkable  acts  but  they 
showed  an  increasing  and  sturdy  expression  of 
strong  character  that  was  fast  maturing  and  that 
had  gained  a  brighter,  surer  vision  of  the  inner  and 
loftier  phases  of  life  than  has  often  been  achieved 
in  such  a  brief  period.  In  a  letter  from  a  relative  of 
the  Thoreau  family,  loaned  for  use  here,  are  two  or 
three  sentences  that  contained  unconscious  prophecy 

143 


144         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

of  the  chosen  form  of  expression  during  Thoreau's 
later  years,  though  the  writer  failed  entirely  to 
comprehend  the  true  purport  of  that  expression. 
While  Thoreau  was  in  JSTew  York  in  1843,  oc 
casionally  visiting  this  relative,  the  latter  wrote, — 
"I  think  he  (Thoreau)  is  getting  to  view  things 
more  as  others  do  than  formerly, — he  remarked  he 
had  been  studying  books,  now  he  intended  to  study 
nature  and  daily  life.  It  would  be  well ! "  There 
is  a  fund  of  latent  sarcasm  and  family  censure  in 
that  final,  laconic  sentence.  This  resolve  made  by 
Thoreau,  at  Staten  Island,  as  a  result  of  tentative 
years,  became  his  life-profession, — to  study  nature 
and  life,  in  poetic  and  philosophic  phases,  and  to 
express  this  communion  of  ideas  in  authorship. 
Walden  was  the  climactic  step  in  his  undistracted 
devotion  to  the  messages  of  nature.  Here  also  he 
served  apprenticeship  to  literature  as  a  profession. 
Already  several  poems  and  essays  had  appeared 
from  his  pen  in  The  Dial  and  other  journals. 
During  the  months  at  Walden  he  wrote  the  essay 
on  "  Thomas  Carlyle  and  his  Works,"  which  ap 
peared  in  Graham's  Magazine.  In  addition  to  the 
definite  material  for  his  first  two  books,  largely 
gathered  and  evolved  by  the  little  lake-retreat,  he 
had,  also,  scattered  thoughts  and  observation  on  na 
ture  and  life  which  were  destined  to  form  the 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          145 

nucleus  of  much  of  his  best  literary  work,  published 
posthumously. 

It  is  true  that,  immediately  on  leaving  Walden, 
he  again  entered  the  Emerson  home,  as  secretary 
and  business  agent,  while  Mr.  Emerson  was  in 
England.  In  Thoreau's  letters,  however,  one  notes 
a  change  of  tone  from  that  of  the  resident  of  four 
years  earlier.  There  is  greater  self-reliance,  more 
surety  of  purpose  both  as  regards  his  own  work 
and  affairs  at  large.  A  witty,  cheery  kindliness,  full 
of  references  to  the  delights  of  the  Emerson  home- 
life,  characterize  his  letters  to  the  absent  father, 
some  of  which  we  shall  note  later.  Allusions  are 
made  to  his  magazine  papers,  to  his  efforts  to  secure 
a  publisher,  and  suggestions  of  other  prophetic 
"  reveries  before  my  green  desk  in  the  chamber  at 
the  head  of  the  stairs."  Doubtless,  the  disappoint 
ment  expressed  in  Emerson's  letters  from  England? 
where,  despite  all  social  attentions,  he  felt  lack  of 
deep  purpose  and  response  to  his  idealism,  influ 
enced  Thoreau.  The  latter  had  clearly  contem 
plated  a  visit  abroad,  for  Emerson  advised  him  to 
publish  his  book  before  he  came,  that  his  literary 
reputation  might  bring  him  entree  into  English 
society. 

No  man  had  a  deeper  reverence  for  the  profes 
sion  of  authorship  than  had  Thoreau.  In  his  very 


146         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

nature  be  abhorred  and  disdained  the  compromi 
sing,  often  insincere,  shifts  of  aspirants  for  publica 
tion.  His  real  aspiration  and  joy,  like  that  of  all 
true  scholars  and  authors,  was  in  the  creation  and 
expression,  not  in  the  publication.  The  latter  was 
subsidiary  and  resorted  to  mainly  at  the  urgence  of 
friends  and  for  financial  ends.  On  this  point,  he 
wrote  Mr.  Elliot  Cabot  in  1848,  as  included  in 
"  Familiar  Letters,"  — "  Time  &  Co.,  are  after  all, 
the  only  quite  honest  and  trustworthy  publishers 
that  we  know.  I  can  sympathize,  perhaps,  with 
the  barberry  bush,  whose  business  it  is  solely  to 
ripen  its  fruit  (though  that  may  not  be  to  sweeten 
it)  and  to  protect  it  from  thorns,  so  that  it  can  hold 
on  all  winter,  even,  unless  some  angry  crows  come 
to  pluck  it.  But  I  see  that  I  must  get  a  few  dollars 
together  presently  to  manure  my  roots.  ...  At 
any  rate,  I  mean  always  to  spend  only  words 
enough  to  purchase  silence  with,  and  I  have  found 
that  this  which  is  so  valuable,  though  many  writers 
do  not  prize  it,  does  not  cost  much,  after  all." 
This  indifference  to  publication  was  induced,  in 
part,  by  disappointments ;  in  part,  it  was  the  ex 
pression  of  his  constant  plea  for  absolute  independ 
ence  of  thought  and  form,  without  any  restrictions 
imposed  by  printers  or  public.  He  continued  to 
accumulate  thoughts  and  observations  for  the  books 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         147 

which,  after  his  death,  would  give  to  the  reading- world 
unique  pleasure,  and,  to  their  author,  tardy  fame. 

If  Thoreau's  profession  during  his  mature  life 
was  clearly  authorship,  it  had  a  specific  range, — 
"  study  of  nature  and  of  life,"  the  work  of  the 
naturalist  and  the  poet-philosopher.  Excursions, 
fifty  years  ago  a  rarity  in  comparison  with  to-day, 
were  purposeless  rambles  to  the  majority  of 
participants.  Excursions  for  study,  as  conducted 
by  Thoreau,  were  novelties  in  his  day  but  are 
common  current  experiences.  In  this  respect,  as  in 
others,  was  he  distinctly  "  fifty  years  in  advance  of 
his  times."  The  memorable  excursion  of  1839  with 
his  brother  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack  rivers, 
was  the  first  of  many  extended  trips  for  study  of 
botany,  ornithology,  and  their  allied  branches. 
While  in  encampment  at  Walden,  in  1846,  he  spent 
two  weeks  in  the  Maine  woods,  finding  special 
pleasure  in  the  study  of  Indian  words  and  customs. 
The  combined  accounts  of  this  excursion  and  the 
later  one  with  Channing  in  1853-4,  were  not  pub 
lished  until  after  Thoreau's  death  but  the  first  study 
in  the  later  series,  "  Ktaadn  and  the  Maine  Woods," 
appeared  in  Sartain's  Union  Magazine,  through  the 
influence  of  Mr.  Greeley,  in  1848 ;  for  it,  Thoreau 
received  twenty-five  dollars.  Graham,  after  com 
pulsion  by  Mr.  Greeley,  had  also  paid  seventy-five 


148         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

dollars  for  the  article  on  Carlyle, — excellent  prices 
for  those  days. 

An  exhaustive  and  just  study  of  nature  requires 
not  alone  familiarity  with  forest  and  meadow,  but 
also  with  sea  and  shore.  For  this  purpose  he  made 
the  excursions  of  1849,  1850,  and  1855,  recorded  in 
"  Cape  Cod,"  portions  of  which  appeared  in  Put 
nam's  Magazine  before  Thoreau  died.  Another 
expedition  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in 
his  literary  remains  was  to  Canada  in  1850  with 
Channing,  when  they  styled  themselves  the 
"Knights  of  the  Umbrella  and  the  Bundle."  In 
his  letters  and  journals  for  1847  to  1850  are  sundry 
suggestions  of  the  slow,  yet  sure,  appreciation 
which  was  coming  to  Thoreau  as  a  man  of  thought 
and  literary  ability,  namely,  invitations  to  lecture 
before  lyceums  and  smaller  audiences.  In  his  first 
day-book  is  mention  of  his  primal  attempt  at  such 
lecture  before  the  Concord  Lyceum  in  1838. 
Occasional  mention  is  made  of  writing  lectures 
during  1840  to  1845,  but  one  can  well  understand 
that  his  radical  and  fearless  utterances  on  church 
and  state  would  disqualify  him  for  any  cautious 
lyceum  during  these  years  of  conflict  over  slavery. 
The  restriction  on  the  lyceum  seems  to  have  been 
circumvented  in  Plymouth,  as  it  was  elsewhere,  by 
arranging  special  services  on  Sundays,  for  the 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          149 

benefit  of  such  noted  abolitionists  as  Emerson, 
Higginson,  Alcott,  Garrison,  Quincy,  Mrs.  Foster, 
and  others.  Here,  at  Leyden  Hall,  under  the  care 
of  his  friends,  the  Watsons,  Thoreau  lectured  in 
February,  1852.  He  also  lectured  in  Boston  the 
same  year  at  the  Mechanics  Apprentice's  Library, 
as  arranged  by  Colonel  Higginson.  In  an  interest 
ing  review  of  the  Concord  Lyceum  by  Judge  Hoar, 
it  is  stated  that  Thoreau  lectured  before  this  or 
ganization  nineteen  times,  while  Emerson's  lectures 
reached  the  remarkable  number  of  ninety-eight. 
Thoreau  also  gave  lectures  in  Salem,  New  Bedford, 
Fitch  burg,  Providence,  and  elsewhere  in  New 
England.  In  a  letter  to  Emerson  in  1848,  as  cited 
by  Mr.  Sanborn,  he  says,  — "  Lectures  begin  to  mul 
tiply  on  my  desk.  I  have  one  on  Friendship  which 
is  new,  and  the  materials  of  some  others.  I  read 
one  last  week  to  the  Lyceum  on  the  Eights  and 
Duties  of  the  Individual  in  Eelation  to  Government, 
— much  to  Mr.  Alcott's  satisfaction."  One  may  con 
clude  that  the  ideas  promulgated  were  radical  and 
bold.  One  of  the  few  journeys  Thoreau  enjoyed 
was  to  Perth  Amboy  and  Eagles  wood  in  1856, 
where  he  lectured  and  surveyed  land  for  Mr.  Marcus 
Spring,  the  friend  of  Alcott. 

Opinions  seem  diverse  regarding  Thoreau's  suc 
cess  as  a  lecturer.     He  could  never  be  compared 


150         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

with  Emerson,  whom  Lowell  has  called  "  the  most 
steadily  attractive  lecturer  in  America,"  with  a 
diction  like  "homespun  cloth-of-gold."  Thoreau's 
voice  was  musical,  his  subject  matter  always  unique, 
sometimes  stultifying,  but  he  lacked  that  magnetic 
charm  of  manner  and  the  gracious  conciliation 
which  allured  the  audiences  of  Emerson,  even  if  to 
many  his  thoughts  were  supra-mundane.  Thoreau's 
recall  to  some  places  testified  to  a  degree  of  success, 
though  he  wrote  in  extravagant  self -depreciation, — 
"  I  am  from  time  to  time  congratulating  myself  on 
my  general  want  of  success  as  a  lecturer ;  apparent 
want  of  success,  but  is  it  not  a  real  triumph  ?  I  do 
my  work  clean  as  I  go  along,  and  they  will  not  be 
likely  to  want  me  again,  so  there  is  no  danger  of 
my  repeating  myself,  and  getting  to  be  a  barrel  of 
•sermons,  which  you  must  upset  and  begin  with 
again."  Like  Emerson,  Thoreau  used  the  lecture 
as  a  means  rather  than  an  end  and  he  often  rebelled, 
as  did  Emerson,  against  the  necessary  interruption 
to  his  more  deep  and  spontaneous  thought.  He 
felt  "cheapened"  by  the  trifling  exactions  often 
made  by  an  audience, — the  emphasis  which  they 
laid  upon  personal  relations  with  the  lecturer,  their 
inability  to  understand  without  detailed  explana 
tions,  and  their  total  misunderstanding  of  his  entire 
thought.  Thoreau  was  so  independent  and  sincere 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          15  * 

that  this  union  of  dullness  and  triviality  annoyed 
him  sorely  and  to  his  journal  he  confided  some  of 
his  irritation.  "  Many  will  complain  of  my  lectures, 
that  they  are  transcendental  and  they  can't  under 
stand  them.  'Would  you  have  us  return  to  the 
savage  state,'  etc.,  a  criticism  true  enough  it  may 
be,  from  their  point  of  view.  But  the  fact  is  that 
the  earnest  lecturer  can  speak  only  to  his  like,  and 
adapting  himself  to  his  audience  is  a  mere  compli 
ment  which  he  pays  them.  ...  If  you  wish  me 
to  speak  as  if  I  were  you,  that  is  another  matter." 

In  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  he  lectured  often, 
almost  annually  from  1849  to  1861.  His  friend, 
Mr.  Harrison  G.  O.  Blake,  to  whom  more  attention 
will  be  given  under  Thoreau's  friends,  began 
correspondence  in  March,  1848.  From  this  time, 
Mr.  Blake  and  another  friend,  Mr.  Theophilus 
Brown,  arranged  lectures  in  Worcester  before 
small,  interested  audiences,  generally  in  the  parlors 
of  Mr.  Blake's  school.  A  small  admittance  fee 
was  charged  to  meet  expenses.  As  elsewhere,  the 
audience  was  of  two  minds.  Some  were  thrilled 
and  stimulated  to  higher,  nobler  life ;  others,  says 
a  lady  who  attended  many  of  the  lectures,  "  could 
not  understand  what  he  meant  and  thought  it  was 
all  nonsense."  Another  Worcester  auditor  has  told 
me  of  her  utter  bewilderment  at  a  lecture  "all 


152         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

about  beans,"  which  he  delivered  at  the  City  Hall. 
Her  impression  is  borne  out  by  a  chance  sentence 
noted  in  Alcott's  "  Concord  Days,"  where  he  says 
of  Thoreau, — "  At  "Worcester  he  read  a  damaging- 
institution  lecture  on  Beans  which  has  never  got 
to  print."  A  lady,  who  was  his  hostess  on  oc 
casions  in  Worcester,  has  expressed  in  strong 
analogy  her  memory  of  his  face  and  bearing, — "  He 
always  reminded  me  of  an  eagle,  ready  to  soar  to 
great  heights  or  to  swoop  down  on  anything  he 
considered  evil." 

In  addition  to  these  personal  memories,  gra 
ciously  recalled,  there  is  a  report  of  a  lecture  in  the 
Worcester  dZgis  for  January  10,  1855.  Thoreau's 
subject  was  "  The  Connection  between  Man's  Em 
ployment  and  his  Higher  Life."  The  detached  ex 
tracts  in  the  half-column  review  have  a  most 
familiar  sound  for  readers  of  Thoreau,  for  they  are 
largely  incorporated  in  his  journal  pages  edited  by 
Mr.  Blake.  Among  significant  sentences  are 
these ; — "  The  farmer  is  a  worthy  subject  for  an 
epic,  when  he  cultivates  at  the  same  time  his  land 
and  himself,  so  as  to  secure  the  best  progress,  physical 
and  spiritual."  .  .  .  "  It  is  the  great  art  of  life 
to  turn  the  surplus  life  of  the  soul  into  life  for  the 
body."  .  .  .  "Conversation  degenerates  into 
gossip  when  people  resign  their  inward  life." 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         153 

Among  other  lectures  which  he  read  in  Worces 
ter  in  1857  were  the  favorites,  "Autumnal  Tints" 
and  "  Walking,"  both  published  in  the  Atlantic  the 
same  year  as  his  death.  The  first  lecture  contained 
some  of  his  most  vivid  and  poetic  descriptions  of 
nature.  With  rapture  he  catalogued  the  varieties 
of  Ked  Maples,  declaring  of  the  autumn  brilliance 
that  "  if  such  a  phenomenon  occurred  but  once,  it 
would  be  handed  down  by  tradition  to  posterity 
and  get  into  the  mythology  at  last."  With  an 
artist's  eye,  he  urged  the  planting  of  bright-tinted 
trees  along  the  village  street  as  stimulant  to  beauty 
and  cheer  of  living.  In  his  journal  for  February 
25,  1859,  Thoreau  recorded  that  the  only  criticism 
this  lecture  brought  in  Worcester  was  denial  of  his 
statement  that  his  auditors  had  not  seen  as  many 
beauties  of  nature  as  they  assumed  to  admire.  He 
reiterates  his  belief  "  that  they  have  not  seen  much 
of  them,  that  there  are  very  few  people  who  do  see 
much  of  nature," — a  comment  of  absolute  truth  for 
his  own  time  and  for  all  times. 

Using  his  own  experience  as  a  text,  the  lecture 
on  "  Walking  "  abounded  in  precepts  upon  proper 
equipment,  motive  and  direction,  and  the  spirit 
which  would  alone  bring  exhilaration.  Some  of 
these  didactic  statements  form  an  interesting  com 
mentary  upon  the  age  prior  to  our  own.  To-day, 


154         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

when  walking  has  been  inculcated  into  the  creed  of 
all  well-developed  men  and  women,  with  present- 
day  costumes  adapted  for  outdoor  life,  his  words 
have  a  ring  of  prophecy  as  well  as  remonstrance, 
while  to  his  contemporaries  they  seemed  merely 
defiant  of  conventionalities.  In  a  burst  of  whimsi 
cality,  doubtless  caused  by  some  tiresome  visitor, 
he  wrote  on  a  journal  page,  included  in  "Autumn," — 
"  I  do  not  know  how  to  entertain  those  who  cannot 
take  long  walks.  The  first  thing  that  suggests  itself 
is  to  get  a  horse  to  draw  them,  and  that  brings  me  at 
once  in  contact  with  the  stables  and  dirty  harness, 
and  I  do  not  get  over  my  ride  for  a  long  while.  I 
give  up  my  forenoon  to  them,  and  get  along  pretty 
well,  the  very  elasticity  of  the  air  and  the  promise 
of  the  day  abetting  me ;  but  they  are  heavy  as  dump 
lings  by  mid-afternoon.  If  they  can't  walk,  why 
won't  they  take  an  honest  nap  in  the  afternoon  and 
let  me  go  ?  But  when  two  o'clock  comes,  they  alarm 
me  by  an  evident  disposition  to  sit.  In  the  midst 
of  the  most  glorious  Indian  summer  afternoon,  there 
they  sit,  breaking  your  chairs  and  wearing  out  the 
house,  with  their  backs  to  the  light,  taking  no  note 
of  the  lapse  of  time."  With  special  force,  he  urged 
elimination  of  all  sordid  or  anxious  thoughts  when 
we  are  walking.  The  primal  aim  should  be  not  ex 
ercise,  though  that  is  second,  but  rather  pure  affinity 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          155 

of  senses,  mind  and  soul  with  nature.  Very  ex 
plicit  are  the  directions  for  equipment  for  a  long 
journey  on  foot,  "  the  cheapest  way  to  travel  and 
the  way  to  travel  the  farthest  in  the  shortest  dis 
tance."  For  paraphernalia  one  needs  an  umbrella, 
(he  drolly  recalls  that  he  was  once  taken  for  an 
umbrella  mender)  a  dipper,  a  spoon,  a  fish-line,  some 
Indian  meal,  some  salt,  and  some  sugar.  Lacking 
the  amenities  of  modern  outing  garb,  which  perhaps 
he  would  have  rejected  had  they  then  been  in 
vogue,  he  urges  the  use  of  old  clothes  for  journey- 
wear.  The  traveler  in  his  fine  clothes  is  treated  as 
guest,  not  friend.  "Instead  of  going  in  quietly 
and  sitting  by  the  kitchen  fire,  he  would  be  shown 
into  a  cold  parlor,  there  to  confront  a  fire-board 
and  excite  a  commotion  in  the  whole  family.  The 
women  would  scatter  at  his  approach,  and  the  hus 
bands  and  sons  would  go  right  off  to  hunt  up  their 
black  coats,  for  they  all  have  them." 

"  Wild  Apples  "  which  appeared  in  the  Atlantic 
for  November,  1862,  was  another  successful  lecture. 
A  Concord  schoolboy  recorded  that  this  lecture 
made  the  audience  laugh  at  first,  but  "  it  was  the 
best  lecture  of  the  season,  and  at  its  close  there  was 
long,  continued  applause."  Thoreau's  wide  knowl 
edge  of  poetry,  mythology,  and  horticulture,  en 
abled  him  to  recount  with  grace  and  rare  interest 


156         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

the  roles  played  by  apples  in  legend  and  history, 
the  distinctive  qualities  of  seed,  flavor,  and  aroma. 
The  lecture  closed  with  a  panegyric  to  "  The  Saun- 
terer's  Apple,"  which  not  even  a  saunterer  can  eat 
in  the  house,  since  it  requires  "  the  November  air 
for  sauce." 

In  1849,  the  Thoreau  family  made  their  last  re 
moval,  from  the  "  Texas  House  "  to  the  "  Yellow 
House"  on  Main  Street;  this  had  been  enlarged 
from  a  cottage  by  Henry  and  his  father.  Another 
loss  had  come  to  the  family  circle  in  the  death 
of  Helen,  from  consumption,  in  1849.  The  advan 
cing  years  brought  illness  and  dependence  to  his 
father,  and  Henry  refused  an  invitation  for  a  lec 
ture  and  another  for  a  visit,  writing  "  my  father  is 
very  sick  and  has  been  for  a  long  time,  so  that  there  is 
the  more  need  of  me  at  home."  He  never  wavered 
as  faithful  son  or  brother.  He  aided  in  the  family 
business,  and  varied  his  studies  with  mechanical 
work,  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  household.  In  a 
volume  of  his  journal  in  original  form,  kindly 
shown  me  by  the  present  executor  of  these  precious 
books,  Prof.  E.  Harlow  Eussell,  among  some  loose 
sheets,  are  old  letters  whose  reverse  sides  contain 
some  of  his  nature-notes.  Here  are  business  letters 
from  New  York  houses  placing  orders  and  acknow 
ledging  receipt  of  plumbago  from  Henry  Thoreau. 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          157 

In  1853,  he  records  that  by  surveying,  in  which  he 
was  always  expert,  he  made  a  dollar  a  day  for 
seventy-six  successive  days'  work.  Perhaps  this 
statement  explains  the  unique  comment  on  Tho- 
reau  by  a  so-called  historian  of  Concord, — "  His 
profession  was  that  of  a  surveyor  and  it  is  easy  to 
imagine  how,  with  his  poetic  temperament,  while 
laying  out  roads  and  measuring  wood-lots,  he  came 
to  be  what  he  was."  Could  there  be  a  more  com 
plete  reversal  of  facts  ?  In  such  a  picture  he 
becomes  Admetus  serving  some  Apollo. 

In  1849-1850  he  says  that  he  manufactured  one 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  pencils  and  finally  sacri 
ficed  them  in  price  to  pay  a  debt  of  one  hundred 
dollars.  Probably  this  work,  and  some  of  the 
returns  from  surveying,  paid  the  expense  of  his 
first  book,  issued  by  Munroe  of  Boston  in  1849. 
This  account  of  the  week's  excursion  on  the  Con 
cord  and  Merrimack  rivers,  gained  a  few  favorable 
reviews,  among  them  Lowell's  in  The  Massachu 
setts  Quarterly,  quite  different  in  tone  from  his 
later  sharp,  piquant  essay,  to  receive  attention  in 
another  chapter.  Favorable  reviews,  however,  do 
not  always  ensure  buyers,  and  the  volume  was 
doomed  to  join  that  long  list  of  the  unsold.  The 
story  is  familiar  of  the  return,  in  1853,  of  seven 
hundred  copies  of  this  first  edition,  which  Thoreau 


158         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

bore  doggedly  upon  his  back  to  his  attic  study,  de 
claring  that  he  had  now  a  library  of  "  nearly  nine 
hundred  volumes,  over  seven  hundred  of  which  I 
wrote  myself."  To-day,  the  1861  edition  of  "  A 
Week,"  published  by  Ticknor,  commands  a  fabu 
lous  price.  It  contains  on  a  fly-leaf  at  the  end,  an 
announcement,  "To  Appear  Soon,  <Walden'  by 
the  same  Author."  As  "  Walden  "  was  published 
in  1854,  this  amusing  and  telltale  oversight  dis 
closes  the  fact  that  the  later  publishers  bought 
those  seven  hundred  copies  and  sold  them  as  part 
of  this  later  edition. 

No  one  can  question  that  Thoreau's  sensitive 
heart  was  hurt  by  this  early  rebuff  in  authorship 
yet  he  applied  nobly  his  philosophy  of  complacency 
and  contentment.  It  was  not  pure  stoicism  or  ego 
tism  that  called  forth  the  words,—"  Indeed,  I  believe 
that  this  result  is  more  inspiring  and  better  than  if 
a  thousand  had  bought  my  wares.  It  affects  my 
privacy  less  and  leaves  me  freer."  A  man  of  less 
courage  and  confidence  in  his  powers  might  have 
here  ended  his  literary  career.  Thoreau,  however, 
had  prepared  with  care,  and  with  greater  variety 
and  uniqueness  of  theme,  his  experiences  at  Wal 
den.  This  was  published  by  Ticknor  in  1854. 
Some  unpleasant,  distorted  strictures  upon  the 
volume  appeared,  but  criticism,  in  the  main,  was 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         159 

favorable.  The  public  at  least  was  interested  and, 
in  two  years,  the  publishers  sold  two  thousand 
copies.  Comment  upon  these  books  must  be  re 
served  for  a  later  chapter.  Though  "Walden" 
was  never  a  work  to  catch  popular  fancy,  in  the 
fleeting  sense  of  the  term,  it  gained  a  sure  and  in 
creasing  hold  upon  the  reading-public  of  the  higher 
grades  and  established  Thoreau's  reputation  as  an 
author,  naturalist  and  philosopher.  The  words 
which  he  used  in  general  application  in  his  journal 
for  November  20,  1857,  are  especially  pertinent 
for  "  Walden  " ; — "  It  is  not  the  book  of  him  who 
has  traveled  farthest  on  the  surface  of  the  globe, 
but  of  him  who  has  lived  the  deepest  and  been  the 
most  at  home." 

As  Thoreau's  life  neared  its  close  and  his  reputa 
tion  became  established,  national  affairs  approached 
a  climax,  destined  to  further  increase  public  inter 
est  in  this  man  and  evidence  his  strong,  lofty 
character.  Like  nearly  all  the  radical  thinkers  of 
his  day,  he  had  long  censured  the  lax  and  corrupt 
politics  of  his  time,  for  history  repeats  itself  in  such 
conditions  in  every  generation.  In  Thoreau's  case 
this  opposition  had  a  definite  cause  and  was  given 
a  bold,  defiant  expression.  Among  the  scattering 
incidents,  always  associated  with  his  memory,  is  the 
fact  that,  while  at  Walden,  he  had  been  arrested 


160         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

and  spent  a  night  in  jail  because  he  persistently  re 
fused  to  pay  his  state  tax.  This  occurrence,  like 
many  another  incidental  to  his  character-unfolding, 
was  wholly  misconstrued.  It  was  regarded  as  a 
deed  of  silly,  affected  defiance  to  custom,  whereas 
it  was  one  of  the  most  simple  and  consistent  ex 
pressions  of  his  firm,  basal  principles.  Eight  years 
before  he  had  refused  to  pay  the  church  tax  and 
had  seceded  quietly  but  firmly  from  church  attend 
ance,  though  Emerson,  in  his  journal,  speaks  of  him 
as  an  occasional  attendant.  He  was  then  teaching, 
and  he  saw  no  logic  for  payment  of  a  tax  to  support 
the  minister  unless  the  minister  should  pay  a 
sum  for  the  support  of  the  teacher.  He  was  no 
anarchist  in  his  refusal  to  meet  the  demands  of 
state,  but  he  was  a  radical,  bold  reformer.  His  de 
mand  was  for  "  a  government  which  establishes 
justice  in  the  land,"  and  he  was  averse  to  recogni 
zing  any  claims  of  a  government  which  violated  its 
foundation  stone  of  liberty. 

The  abolition  element  was  coming  to  the  fore  in 
subtle  channels.  Thoreau's  was  not  the  only  re 
fusal  to  support  a  government  which  had  acquiesced 
in  the  Mexican  War  and  was  willing  to  pamper 
slave-owners.  Often  Thoreau  seemed  to  follow  the 
example  of  his  friends  or,  rather,  to  carry  their  ideas 
to  some  extreme  issue.  In  writing  Emerson  in 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          16 1 

1843,  he  mentions  Alcott's  refusal  to  pay  his  taxes 
and  his  narrow  escape  from  arrest ;  his  opposition 
was  fully  concurred  in  by  Thoreau  and  Alcott's 
English  friend,  Lane.  In  "Walden"  is  a  simple 
yet  dramatic  recital  of  Thoreau's  own  experience : 
— "  One  afternoon,  near  the  end  of  the  first  summer, 
when  I  went  to  the  village  to  get  a  shoe  from  the 
cobbler's,  I  was  seized  and  put  into  jail,  because,  as 
I  have  elsewhere  narrated,  I  did  not  pay  a  tax  to 
or  recognize  the  authority  of  the  state  which  buys 
and  sells  men,  women,  and  children,  like  cattle  at 
the  door  of  the  state-house."  Samuel  Staples,  the 
jailor,  whose  recent  death  has  removed  another 
link  between  Thoreau's  Concord  and  the  town  of  to 
day,  delighted  to  recount  his  prisoner's  demeanor, 
his  interested  study  of  his  fellow-prisoners,  his 
anger  when  his  Aunt  Maria  in  disguise  paid  his  tax, 
his  reluctance  to  leave  the  jail,  and  his  departure, 
with  his  mended  shoe,  as  "  captain  of  a  huckleberry- 
party."  While  these  incidents  have  semblance  to 
the  acts  of  a  mere  poseur,  they  yet  indicate  the 
fontal  source  of  Thoreau's  opposition.  In  the  es 
say  upon  "  Civil  Disobedience,"  he  complains  of  the 
false  interpretation  placed  upon  this  experience  in 
jail ; — "  I  felt  as  if  I  alone  of  all  my  townsmen  had 
paid  my  tax.  They  plainly  did  not  know  how  to 
treat  me  but  behaved  like  persons  who  are  under- 


162         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

bred.  In  every  threat  and  in  every  compliment  there 
was  a  blunder ;  for  they  thought  that  my  chief  de 
sire  was  to  stand  on  the  other  side  of  that  stone  wall. 
I  could  not  but  smile  to  see  how  industriously  they 
locked  the  door  on  my  meditations,  which  followed 
them  out  again  without  let  or  hindrance,  and  they 
were  really  all  that  were  dangerous." 

Among  the  side-lights  upon  this  tax  episode  was 
the  significant  dialogue  between  Emerson  and 
Thoreau,  when  the  former  visited  his  friend  in  jail 
and  asked,  "  Henry,  why  are  you  here  ?  "  Thoreau's 
answer,  so  often  misquoted,  was,  "  Why  are  you 
not  here  ?  "  This  should  not  be  construed  as  pert- 
ness  or  lack  of  deference.  It  was  a  calm,  judicial, 
and  perhaps  Yankee,  counter-question,  expressing 
his  firm  belief  that  all  who  opposed  slavery  in 
thoughts  and  words,  among  whom  was  Emerson, 
should  be  willing  to  show  that  opposition  in  deed, 
even  at  the  risk  of  being  counted  as  eccentrics, 
perhaps  law-breakers.  In  the  essay  on  "  Civil  Dis 
obedience,"  he  emphasized  this  idea  and  urged  the 
Abolitionists  to  refuse  support  to  the  state  until  it 
should  declare  itself  against  slavery.  Such  course, 
involving  incarceration  in  county  jail,  if  maintained 
by  "  ten  honest  men  only, — ay,  if  one  honest  man 
ceasing  to  hold  slaves, — it  would  be  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  America." 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          163 

From  the  focus  of  this  century  it  is  not  difficult 
to  laud,  as  brave  and  prophetic,  Thoreau's  words 
and  deeds,  for  the  world  has  grown  in  admiration 
of  true  heroism  in  whatever  form,  but  to  his  con 
temporaries,  while  they  deplored  existent  condi 
tions,  such  bold,  decisive  steps  savored  of  anarchy. 
It  was  that  critical  decade  before  the  courage  of 
conviction  and  action  had  awakened,  and  many 
brave  men  advocated  the  doctrine  of  patience  and 
silence.  A  reformer  or  prophet  can  never  be  un 
derstood  by  his  neighbors, — his  deeds  and  words 
need  the  light  of  subsequent  events  and  balanced 
judgments  after  white  heat  has  subsided,  or  they 
will  lack  true  interpretation.  One  can  readily  re 
vert  to  the  conditions  of  sixty  years  ago  and  imagine 
the  effect,  in  a  small  village,  of  such  an  unprecedented 
excitement  as  Thoreau's  lodgment  in  jail.  Prob 
ably  the  surprise  was  less  astounding  in  this  case 
than  it  would  have  been  if  related  of  any  other 
villager.  The  years,  however,  passed  quietly  by, 
the  man  pursued  his  serene  life,  avoiding  all  pub 
licity,  writing  his  books  and  essays,  reading  his  lec 
tures,  making  an  occasional  excursion,  or  spending 
a  few  consecutive  weeks  at  surveying  or  pencil-mak 
ing?  years  of  industry,  sturdiness,  and  creation, 
years  of  service  to  family  and  friends,  years  of 
quiet,  sure  expression  of  the  nature-lore,  the  liter- 


164         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

ary  treasures,  the  lofty  ideals  and  noble  principles 
which  were  his. 

During  these  same  years  national  affairs  were 
also  approaching  their  crucial  expression.  The 
compromise  of  1850,  the  new,  more  stringent,  fugi 
tive  slave  law  of  the  same  year,  the  Kansas-Ne 
braska  bill,  the  long,  fierce  struggle  in  Kansas,  the 
attack  upon  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate  in  1856, 
the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  final  message  of  the 
President  urging  the  admission  of  Kansas  with  the 
stigma  of  slavery  as  her  entrance-fee, — these  and 
similar  acts  of  this  intense  period  awakened  the 
lethargic  North,  and  especially  New  England,  to  a 
realization  of  the  deluge  of  tyranny  which  threat 
ened  to  sweep  over  the  republic  and  bear  away  her 
sacred  "  name  and  fame."  Concord  had  long  been 
excited  over  the  question  of  anti-slavery.  In  1837, 
Emerson  had  made  there  an  address  on  this  subject 
and  to  Concord,  at  sundry  times,  for  personal  and 
political  sympathy,  had  come  the  four  great  leaders 
of  abolition, — Garrison  and  Parker,  Phillips  and 
Surnner.  As  in  all  New  England  towns,  however, 
there  was  a  division  of  sentiment,  deep,  almost 
violent.  In  Boston  and  her  contiguous  towns  the 
higher  grades  of  society  opposed  the  movement  and 
visited,  with  social  scorn,  their  own  representatives, 
Phillips  and  Sumner,  no  less  than  the  men  of  the 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          165 

common  people.  To  many  noble,  progressive 
thinkers  of  the  time,  the  abolition  movement 
seemed  full  of  injustice  to  property-holders  at 
North  and  South.  They  feared  also  the  violent 
disruption  and  riots  sure  to  result  from  the  radical 
application  of  such  principles.  Many  shared  Haw 
thorne's  feeling, — and  many  share  it  to-day  with 
added  strength  after  the  conflict  has  left  its  after 
math  of  tragic  race-problems, — we  "  could  not  see 
the  thing  at  so  long  a  range."  Few  of  the  reform 
ers  knew  much  of  the  actual  status  at  the  South 
from  any  personal  inspection.  Many  of  the  criti 
cisms  and  some  of  the  proposed  measures  were  not 
alone  rabid  but  fraught  with  danger  to  the  nation. 
The  movement,  however,  in  the  main,  was  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  spirit  of  freedom,  bodily, 
mental,  and  religious,  which  swept  over  the  world 
during  the  last  century.  Emphasis  of  the  latent 
good  in  all  men,  and  their  possible  progress  in 
mind  and  soul,  fostered  this  primal  defiance  to 
bondage  of  the  negroes.  The  abolitionists  held  a 
convention  in  Concord  in  1844.  The  churches 
refused  to  open  their  doors,  so  the  meeting  was 
held  in  the  Court-House.  Thoreau  asked  for 
and  gained  permission  for  its  use  and  he  rang 
the  bell,  with  all  the  vigor  of  muscle  which  was 
his,  and  Emerson  made  a  thrilling  address  advo- 


l66         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

eating  the  possible  benefits  of  education  for  freed 
negroes. 

Thoreau,  as  remonstrant  in  potent,  dramatic  form, 
was  destined  to  stand  with  many  of  his  friends, 
rather  than  alone,  as  the  years  passed  with  their 
messages  of  hazard  and  state-corruption.  The 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  the  Anthony  Burns  affair 
of  1854  kindled  Thoreau's  wrath  to  strong  words. 
Alcott  said  that,  after  the  return  of  Simms,  Tho 
reau,  in  defiant  satire,  urged  his  townsmen  to  paint 
their  Revolutionary  monument  black,  "  as  a  symbol 
of  the  dreadful  treason."  John  Brown  came  to  Con 
cord  to  visit  Mr.  Sanborn  in  1857  and  then  Thoreau 
met  the  man  whose  character  he  had  long  admired. 
There  seemed  an  immediate  affinity  between  the 
two  men,  both  keen  lovers  of  nature  and  legend, 
both  inflexible  in  moral  fibre,  both  somewhat  fa 
natical  in  ideas  of  government,  both  glad  to  risk 
life  for  principle.  Mr.  Burroughs  has  called  Tho 
reau  the  spiritual  brother  of  Brown, — "  the  last  and 
final  flowering  of  the  same  plant, — the  seed  flower 
ing  ;  he  was  just  as  much  of  a  zealot,  was  just  as 
gritty  and  unflinching  in  his  way."  John  Brown's 
character  and  career  moved  Thoreau  at  two  points, 
— as  reformer  and  as  poet.  He  admired  the  life- 
risking  defiance  to  an  unjust,  slave-permitting  gov 
ernment,  but  he  also  appreciated  the  dramatic  and 


168         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

to  practical  politics,  displayed  unsurpassed  energy 
and  courage.  We  recalled  their  forceful  prophecies 
of  the  possible  educative  results  for  the  negroes 
at  the  dedication  of  the  Robert  Shaw  monument 
in  Boston  in  May,  1898.  Booker  T.  Washington 
was  given  the  ovation  of  this  occasion  as  he 
uttered  his  magnetic  words  which  established, 
beyond  all  doubt,  the  actual  mental  power,  at  least 
in  one  example,  evolved  by  education  and  encour 
agement  from  one  born  and  bred  in  slavery  and 
now  recognized  throughout  the  world  as  among  the 
most  honored  of  Americans. 

In  that  rare  volume,  "Echoes  from  Harper's 
Ferry,"  edited  by  James  Eedpath  in  1860,  Tho- 
reau's  "  Plea  for  Captain  Brown  "  has  initial  place, 
beside  orations  by  Emerson  and  Wendell  Phillips. 
A  chance  allusion  in  a  letter  indicates  that  Thoreau 
tried  to  get  his  plea  printed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Brown  family, — another  evidence  of  his  genuine 
helpfulness.  At  the  commemoration  services  at 
Concord  in  December,  1859,  Thoreau  had  the  most 
important  part.  His  personal  remarks  show  how 
strongly  he  was  moved  by  the  pathos  of  the  affair. 
He  referred*  with  emotion  to  the  woman,  (wife  of 
Judge  Russell)  who  visited  Brown  in  prison  to 
mend  his  sabre-riven  clothes  and  brought  away,  as 
a  sacred  memento,  a  pin  marked  with  blood-stains. 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          169 

In  addition  to  the  original  comments,  full  of  tender 
feeling,  Thoreau  read  quotations  from  elegies  and 
odes,  showing  a  wide  and  careful  selection.  Among 
the  authors  cited  were  Schiller,  Wordsworth  and 
Tennyson,  with  a  translation  of  his  own  from 
Tacitus.  He  also  quoted  "  The  Soul's  Errand,"  the 
poem  attributed  to  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  when  await 
ing  threatened  execution ;  there  was  especial  signifi 
cance  in  the  last  stanza,  for  Thoreau,  with  others, 
had  sought  permission  from  the  town  officers  to 
toll  the  bell  on  the  day  of  Brown's  death,  but  the 
faint-hearted  magnates  had  demurred.  Hence, 
Thoreau  italicized  with  voice  the  lines : 

"When  I  am  dead, 
Let  not  the  day  be  writ, 
Nor  bell  be  tolled. 
Love  will  remember  it 
When  hate  is  cold." 

Thoreau's  address  in  behalf  of  Brown,  after  the 
arrest,  was  delivered  in  Concord  on  Sunday  even 
ing,  October  30th,  and  was  repeated  the  following 
week  in  Boston,  Worcester,  and  elsewhere.  Some 
friends  deprecated  this  boldness  and  dreaded 
lest  Thoreau's  arraignment  of  the  government 
might  bring  him  arrest.  Little  recked  he  the  re 
sult, — his  duty  was  to  speak  and,  if  possible,  awaken 
public  conscience  and  national  courage.  His  ad- 


170         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

dress,  even  read  at  the  present  day,  is  trenchant  and 
magnetic.  He  transcended  his  usual  powers  of 
language  and  was  listened  to,  says  Emerson,  "  by 
many  with  a  sympathy  that  surprised  themselves." 
In  the  Worcester  Spy  for  November  3,  1859,  I 
found  the  announcement  for  the  address, — "  As  Mr. 
Thoreau  never  deals  in  commonplaces, — as  he  con 
siders  Brown  a  hero, — and  as  he  has  been  so  moved 
by  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair  as  to  feel  compelled  to 
leave  his  customary  seclusion  in  order  to  address 
the  public,  what  he  has  to  say  is  likely  to  be  worth 
hearing."  Surely,  it  so  proved !  The  opening  sen 
tence  was  a  graceful,  strong  explanation  of  his 
attitude, — "I  trust  that  you  will  pardon  me  for 
being  here.  I  do  not  wish  to  force  my  thoughts 
upon  you,  but  I  feel  forced  myself."  He  recounts 
his  own  deep  disturbance  in  the  cause, — his  inability 
to  read  or  sleep,  and  the  urgent  sentences  written 
in  the  dark, — the  plea  not  for  Brown's  life  so  much 
as  for  his  character, — "his  immortal  life."  With 
the  force  of  a  seer  he  spoke  to  the  slave-committed 
South, — "Prepare  yourselves  for  a  settlement  of 
that  question,  that  must  come  up  for  settlement 
sooner  than  you  are  prepared  for  it.  .  .  .  You 
may  dispose  of  me  very  easily,  I  am  nearly  disposed 
of  now ;  but  this  question  is  still  to  be  settled, — this 
negro  question,  I  mean ;  the  end  of  that  is  not  yet." 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         171 

In  a  dual  sense  were  his  words  prophetic, — both 
as  regards  his  country  and  himself.  The  agitation 
ripened  fast ;  the  conflict  he  had  foreseen,  and  fore 
told,  came  apace.  His  latent  reference  to  his  own 
death  was  as  speedily  fulfilled.  To  many  he  seemed 
now  at  the  very  prime  of  age  and  power.  His 
development  had  been  slow  and  experimental,  his 
recognition  as  author,  naturalist,  and  reformer,  had 
at  last  been  bestowed.  His  unique,  yet  strong, 
philosophy  of  life  had  been  shaped  and  tested ;  his 
knowledge  of  nature,  poetry,  and  Indian  lore  was 
rare  and  extensive,  ready  for  expression  in  literary 
forms  of  new  and  recognized  value.  His  home-life 
as  companion  and  care-taker  for  mother  and  sister 
was  affectionate  and  satisfying.  He  had  many 
devoted  and  dependent  friends.  He  had  become  a 
force  in  national  affairs  at  a  time  when  such  sym 
pathies  were  sure  to  broaden  and  ennoble  the  best 
manhood.  At  forty-two  years  of  age,  with  all 
these  prospects  before  him,  his  health  had  failed, 
his  active  work  was  nearly  done.  Only  months  of 
patient  endurance  and  a  few  last  expressions  of 
mind  and  soul  remained. 

There  has  always  seemed  a  paradox  in  the  fact 
that  the  man  who  lived  four  or  five  hours  a  day 
in  the  open  air  when  it  was  possible,  who  walked 
and  bivouacked  amid  the  pine  woods,  whose  phys- 


172         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

ical  and  muscular  fibre  seemed  untiring,  with  what 
Emerson  called  "  an  oaken  strength,"  should  have 
succumbed  to  a  lingering  consumption,  before  half 
his  days  of  rightful  life  were  spent.  As  intimated, 
the  disease  had  been  a  family  blight,  fastened  upon 
both  the  Thoreaus  and  the  Dunbars.  In  one  sense, 
Lowell's  peculiar  sentence  on  Thoreau, — "  his  whole 
life  was  a  search  for  the  doctor," — is  not  false.  His 
doctor  was  health-giving  Nature,  which  should  be 
stow  the  tonic  of  purity,  simplicity,  and  ideality 
to  the  congested  civilization  of  the  age,  while  she 
should  bring,  also,  individual  strength  and  elixir  to 
his  own  body  and  soul.  From  his  college  days 
to  the  last  years  are  occasional  journal-notes  of 
attacks  of  illness,  passed  by  with  light,  apologetic 
mention,  as  was  his  wont  on  personal  matters,  yet 
indicating  a  proneness  to  bronchitis.  As  if  in  pre 
science  of  the  future  trials  he  wrote,  after  such  an 
illness  in  1841, — "Sickness  should  not  be  allowed 
to  extend  farther  than  the  body.  We  need  only 
to  retreat  farther  within  us  to  preserve  uninter 
ruptedly  the  continuity  of  serene  hours  to  the  end 
of  our  lives."  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Blake  in  1855,  he 
refers  to  an  illness  of  two  or  three  months,  fol 
lowed  by  languor  and  inability  to  read  or  work. 
With  characteristic  optimism,  he  adds, — "  How 
ever,  there  is  one  consolation  in  being  sick  and 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION          173 

that  is  the  possibility  that  you  may  recover  to  a 
better  state  than  you  were  ever  in  before."  The 
following  year  he  alludes  to  "  ridiculous  feeble 
ness  "  and  inability  to  take  long  tramps. 

From  this  continued  illness,  called  by  him  "  two 
years'  invalidity,"  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  take 
a  later  excursion  to  Cape  Cod  with  Channing,  and 
to  the  Maine  Woods  and  White  Mountains  in  1857 
and  1858.  The  excursion  to  the  White  Mountains, 
made  with  Edward  Hoar,  had  the  unusual  luxuries 
of  a  horse  and  wagon,  involving,  in  Thoreau's 
opinion,  a  loss  of  independence.  It  was  on  this 
trip,  in  exploring  Tuckerman's  Ravine,  that  Tho- 
reau  slipped  and  sprained  his  ankle  and,  at  almost 
the  same  minute,  found  the  arnica  plant,  arnica 
mollis,  for  which  they  had  been  searching  as  a 
botanical  specimen.  This  opportune  aid  lessened 
the  severity  of  the  pain,  but  for  five  days  Thoreau 
and  Hoar,  joined  by  two  other  friends,  kept  camp, 
while  Thoreau  entertained  his  friends  with  a  lively 
recital  of  botanical  facts,  Indian  legends  and  poetic 
selections.  His  health  was  not  permanently  re 
established,  however,  for  the  next  year  he  refers  to 
another  illness.  This  year,  after  his  father's  death, 
he  was  closely  confined  at  home  and  in  indoor  busi 
ness  ;  he  once  mentions  in  his  journal,  "  some  very 
irksome  affairs  on  account  of  my  family."  His 


174         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

last  break  from  routine,  after  the  strain  and  ex 
citement  of  the  John  Brown  affair,  was  in  August, 
1860,  when  he  made  his  last  trip  to  Monadnoc,  en 
camping  there  five  days  with  Channing  who  has 
described  this  excursion  in  "  The  Wanderer." 
Their  letters  record  the  severe  rain-storm  through 
which  they  journeyed  to  the  summit,  sheltered  at 
last  under  a  temporary  "  substantial  house "  of 
spruce  roof,  hewn  by  Thoreau.  They  did  not  reach 
this  refuge,  however,  until  they  were  as  wet  "  as  if 
we  had  stood  in  a  hogshead  of  water."  One  can 
not  refrain  from  belief  that  such  adventures,  how 
ever  exhilarating  to  Thoreau's  spirits,  were  scarcely 
adapted  to  a  physique  liable  to  throat  and  lung 
disease. 

It  has  been  stated  that  on  this  Monadnoc  trip  he 
contracted  his  fatal  cold  but  that  is  disproved  by  his 
own  letters  and  the  testimony  of  Concord  friends. 
The  latter  declare  that  he  had  taken  a  contract  for 
surveying  and  was  determined  to  finish  the  work, 
though  he  had  to  stand  in  a  swamp  for  hours.  He 
never  recovered  from  that  exposure.  In  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Eicketson,  March  22,  1861,  he  wrote,— "I  took 
a  severe  cold  about  the  third  of  December,  which 
at  length  resulted  in  a  kind  of  bronchitis,  so  that  I 
have  been  confined  to  the  house  ever  since."  In 
May  of  the  same  year,  as  he  failed  to  gain  strength, 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         175 

the  doctors  urged  a  trip  westward  or  to  some  warmer 
climate.  With  Horace  Mann,  Jr.,  a  botanist 
friend,  he  started  for  Minnesota,  there  to  remain 
three  months.  He  returned,  however,  in  a  few 
weeks,  with  little  benefit  physically  and  a  passion 
ate  longing  for  home-scenes.  He  took  few  notes 
and  wrote  few  letters  while  on  this  journey,  which 
he  said  he  performed  "  in  a  very  dead  and  alive 
manner,"  and  his  chief  interest  was  in  the  letters 
from  home.  The  only  marked  incidents  were  a  few 
rare  botanical  and  anatomical  discoveries  and  a 
visit  to  the  Sioux  Indians  at  Kedwood.  Here  he 
added  to  his  personal  knowledge  of  the  Indians  and 
their  sentiments  towards  the  white  man,  and  in 
corporated  some  of  these  notes  into  his  last  literary 
work.  From  the  time  of  his  return,  July  1861, 
until  his  death  the  following  May,  Thoreau  ex 
perienced  those  alternates  of  hope  and  despair 
which  accompany  all  bronchial  diseases.  His  friend 
Edward  Hoar,  placed  at  his  service  a  horse  and 
carriage  and,  with  Sophia  or  some  friend,  he  took 
long  drives  while  strength  lasted.  He  made  a  brief 
visit  to  Mr.  Ricketson  in  New  Bedford  in  August, 
1861 ;  there  he  consented  to  sit  for  his  last  ambro- 
type  from  which  Mr.  Walton  Eicketson  has  made 
his  fine  medallion. 

If  Thoreau  showed  a  remarkable  courage  and  in- 


176         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

dependent  nobility  of  character  during  the  years  of 
health,  these  qualities  were  yet  more  in  evidence  in 
his  months  of  illness.  His  letters  reveal  almost 
constant  cheerfulness  and  serenity.  After  reading 
these,  it  is  easy  to  understand  his  sister's  statement, 
— "  During  seventeen  months  never  a  murmur 
escaped  him.  I  wish  I  could  describe  the  wonder 
ful  simplicity  and  childlike  trust  with  which  he  ac 
cepted  every  experience."  He  applied  fully  that 
philosophy  which  he  had  collated.  Industrious  to 
the  last  day  of  his  life,  he  read  many  books,  revised 
his  manuscripts,  and  talked  with  family  and  friends. 
He  was  vitally  interested  in  the  beginnings  of  the 
war,  declaring  he  was  "  sick  for  his  country,"  and 
should  never  recover  while  the  war  lasted.  He 
bore  his  debility  and  suffering  like  a  hero  but  his 
attitude  was  more  than  mere  resignation.  There 
was  the  nobler  element  of  contentment  and  faith. 
He  was  grateful  for  the  years  that  he  had  enjoyed 
and  knew  that  his  time  of  revelation  had  come. 
He  told  Alcott,— "I  leave  the  world  without  a 
regret."  His  serene  faith  never  wavered.  To 
Parker  Pillsbury,  who  inquired  concerning  Tho- 
reau's  belief  in  the  hereafter,  he  calmly  and  gently 
replied, — "My  friend,  one  world  at  a  time."  To 
the  well-meaning  but  bigoted  Calvinist,  who  asked 
if  he  had  made  his  peace  with  God,  his  answer  was 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         177 

as  consistent, — "I  have  never  quarreled  with 
Him." 

The  home-life,  always  happy,  was  spiritualized 
during  these  last  weeks.  As  he  was  courageous 
and  peaceful,  so  he  inspired  the  atmosphere  about 
him.  Into  his  nature  crept  a  more  tender  mani 
festation  of  love.  His  mother  told  a  friend,  after 
Thoreau's  death, — "  Why,  this  room  did  not  look 
like  a  sick-room.  My  son  wanted  flowers  and 
pictures  and  books  all  around  him ;  and  he  was 
always  so  cheerful  and  wished  others  to  be  so  while 
about  him."  He  insisted  upon  joining  the  family 
at  meals  even  when  his  strength  was  nearly  gone, 
because  "  it  was  more  social."  To  them  he  would 
relate  his  strange  dreams  or  unfold  his  treasures  of 
knowledge  and  thought,  as  long  as  voice  allowed. 
A  pathetic  little  incident  proclaimed  his  tender  love 
for  children.  As  he  watched  the  village  boys  and 
girls,  whom  he  had  led  to  berry-pastures,  or  enter 
tained  with  stories  of  his  animal-friends,  pass  his 
home  daily,  he  expressed  to  his  sister  a  wish  to  see 
and  talk  with  them,  adding, — "  I  love  them  as  well 
as  if  they  were  my  own."  Such  was  the  stoic ! 

To  the  last  he  was  visited  by  friends,  old  and 
young.  It  is  noteworthy  that  any  prejudice 
harbored  by  the  townspeople  against  "the  Walden 
hermit "  or  "  the  tax-evader "  had  wholly  disap- 


178         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

peared.  His  family  relate  the  many  evidences  of 
kindness  and  deep  affection,  shown  by  neighbors 
and  even  strangers,  to  one  whom  they  had  learned 
to  respect.  To  Mr.  Calvin  Greene,  the  Western 
friend  of  Thoreau,  Miss  Sophia  narrated  the  fol 
lowing  anecdote :  "  Some  boys  of  the  vicinity  were 
in  the  habit  of  bringing  game  for  him  to  eat,  pre 
senting  it  at  the  kitchen  door,  and  then  gently 
withdrawing,  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  sick  man. 
On  one  occasion  he  was  told  of  it  soon  after  their 
leaving,  when  he  earnestly  inquired,  4  Why  do  you 
not  invite  them  in  ?  I  want  to  thank  them  for  so 
much  that  they  are  bringing  me.'  And  then 
adding,  thoughtfully,  <  Well,  I  declare ;  I  don't  be 
lieve  they  are  going  to  let  me  go  after  all.' "  At 
another  time,  with  half-humorous  tenderness,  he 
said, — "  I  should  be  ashamed  to  stay  in  this  world 
after  so  much  has  been  done  for  me !  I  could  never 
repay  my  friends."  His  last  letter,  collated  by 
Emerson  and  Sanborn,  written  jointly  by  Henry 
and  Sophia,  was  to  one  of  these  strangers  who, 
learning  of  Thoreau's  illness,  wrote  with  deep 
regret  and  regard.  Very  calm  and  courteous  is  the 
reply,  containing  the  self -revelatory  words, — "I 
suppose  that  I  have  not  many  months  to  live,  but  of 
course  I  know  nothing  about  it.  I  may  add  that  I 
am  enjoying  existence  as  much  as  ever,  and  regret 


THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION         179 

nothing."  The  opening  sentence,  also,  bespeaks 
Thoreau's  business  habits  and  unfailing  civility, — "  I 
thank  you  for  your  very  kind  letter,  which,  ever 
since  I  received  it,  I  have  intended  to  answer  be 
fore  I  died,  however  briefly." 

Calmly  he  waited  death,  for  which  he  had  pre 
pared  himself  all  his  life;  nor  was  his  a  mock 
courage  and  bravado  but  a  steadfast  surety  of  faith 
in  nature's  laws  and  nature's  God.  Peacefully  en 
joying  the  fragrance  of  flowers,  just  sent  in  by  an 
honored  friend  and  neighbor,  he  passed  from  this 
life,  May  6,  1862.  "With  special  appropriateness, 
his  casket  was  hidden  behind  the  wild  flowers  and 
forest  growths  that  he  had  loved  so  well.  His  own 
poem,  "  Sic  Vita,"  was  read  by  Alcott  and  his 
eulogy  spoken  by  Emerson,  with  broken,  tender 
voice.  Within  his  coffin  Channing  had  placed  some 
mottoes,  two  emphasizing  Thoreau's  ideals  and 
faith : — "  Gazed  on  the  heavens  for  what  he  missed 
on  earth."  ..."  Hail  to  thee,  O  man,  who  art 
come  from  the  transitory  place  to  the  imperishable." 
Burial,  no  less  than  death,  lacked  terrors  for 
Thoreau.  He  had  written,  "  For  joy  I  could  em 
brace  the  earth.  I  shall  delight  to  be  buried  in  it." 

Does  history  afford  another  example  of  a  brief 
life,  lived  so  simply  and  steadfastly,  left  so  will 
ingly,  and  ended  with  such  entire  sublimity  ?  So 


l8o         THE  YEARS  OF  EXPRESSION 

serene  and  brave  had  been  the  long  illness,  and  so 
peaceful  and  natural  the  passing  of  the  life,  that  his 
sister  could  well  write,— "I  feel  as  if  something 
very  beautiful  had  happened,— not  death." 


Thoreau's    Philosophy  and    Art    of 
Life 


CHAPTER  YI 

THOKEAU'S   PHILOSOPHY   AND   AET   OF   LIFE 

A  CHARACTER  so  unique  as  that  of  Thoreau 
always  awakens  current  curiosity  and  an 
anecdotal  reputation  for  the  next  generation.  Non 
conformity  alone,  however,  will  not  win  the  serious, 
tenacious  interest  which  has  centred  about  this  man 
during  the  last  forty  years  and  is  vital  to-day. 
Two  reasons  may  be  assigned  for  earnest  study  of 
his  life  and  interpretation  of  its  messages.  In  the 
first  place,  his  strange,  complex  nature  was  more 
than  individual ;  it  represented  the  peculiar  histor 
ical  and  literary  influences  of  the  mid-century  upon 
a  mind  of  strong,  yet  plastic,  traits.  Again,  Tho 
reau  not  alone  developed  and  applied  a  peculiar 
philosophy  of  life,  but  he  so  expressed  this  philoso 
phy,  in  writings  of  signal,  compulsive  force,  that  he 
raised  it  into  an  art  of  living,  an  ideal  and  yet  at 
tainable  expansion  of  the  nobler  nature  of  man, 
through  pure  and  constant  communion  with  the 
primal,  creative  forces  of  nature  and  truth. 

Evidence   of   the  wide-spread  admiration,  often 
akin  to  worship,  for  him  as  man  and  author,  has 

183 


184  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

been  cumulative  during  recent  years.  "With  au 
thentic  emphasis  this  public  interest  is  revealed  in  a 
letter  from  Miss  Sophia  Thoreau  to  the  woman 
whom  her  brother  had  loved  in  quiet,  steadfast 
repression.  This  excerpt  is  now,  by  kind  per 
mission,  first  published : 

"  CONCORD,  December  20th,  1868. 
"Many  are  the  friends  who  have  risen  up  to  do 
honor  to  the  life  and  genius  of  our  dear  Henry. 
We  have  been  wonderfully  blessed  and  comforted 
by  tokens  of  the  most  sincere  appreciation  and  af 
fection  from  utter  strangers.  At  first  when  Henry 
left  us,  I  felt  that  few  knew  him,  but  was  consoled 
by  the  thought  that  the  good  God  who  made  him 
and  helped  him  to  live  so  truthful,  so  pure  and  no 
ble  a  life,  would  not  let  it  be  wasted.  Now  I  am 
greatly  surprised  to  learn  the  extent  of  his  influence. 
I  do  believe  it  is  rare  in  one's  own  generation  to  re 
ceive  so  much  homage.  Strangers  have  passed  our 
house  with  bared  heads  in  a  spirit  of  reverence  for 
the  departed.  Men  and  women  have  come  from 
afar  in  summer  and  in  winter,  to  gather  a  blossom 
or  dried  leaf  as  a  memento  from  the  site  of  the  hut 
on  the  shore  of  Walden.  One,  whose  name  we 
never  learned,  sent  ten  dollars  to  mother  and  my 
self  as  a  token  of  respect  for  Henry.  It  is  really 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  185 

pathetic  the  way  in  which  regard  for  his  memory 
has  been  manifested." 


Thoreau  lacked  many  external  graces  of  mind 
and  manner.  He  was  seldom  genial,  seldom  affa 
ble,  his  tenacity  was  often  akin  to  obstinacy,  he  was 
too  concise  and  frank  to  be  always  gracious.  At 
the  same  time,  such  mere  qualities  of  mien  do  not 
indicate  lack  of  innate  fineness  or  nobleness  of  char 
acter.  All  who  knew  him  testified  to  the  unfailing 
courtesy  of  the  highest  type,  and  his  letters  are 
further  evidence  of  this  trait.  Without  any  foppish 
or  exaggerated  expressions  of  regard  for  women,  he 
always  gave  dignified,  grateful  recognition  of  all 
claims  of  family  or  of  friendship.  His  letters  often 
show  thoughtfulness  and  grace.  In  closing,  he  sel 
dom  omitted  kind  words  of  regard  to  the  ladies  of 
the  family, — a  slight  yet  significant  token  of  the 
true  gentleman  that  he  was.  As  a  friend,  he  was 
most  loyal,  with  a  dignified  reserve  that  allowed  no 
undue  familiarity.  The  Scotch  repression  produced 
in  him  an  attitude  that  was  easily  mistaken  for 
coldness.  He  not  alone  shunned,  but  scorned,  mere 
gossip  or  any  society  that  lacked  reverence  and 
earnest  truth.  He  appreciated  wit  and  humor  of  a 
fine  flavor  but  had  proportionate  impatience  with 
the  professional  joker.  Of  such  he  wrote, — "  One 


186  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

complains  that  I  do  not  take  his  jokes.  I  took 
them  before  he  had  done  uttering  them  and  went 
my  way." 

In  his  desire  to  be  independent  and  simple  in 
tastes  and  relations,  he  was  not  infrequently  ill- 
poised  and  combative.  He  lacked  that  grace  of 
mien  and  courteous  attention  to  strangers  which 
characterized  Emerson,  whose  nature  was  more 
teachable  and  less  intense  than  Thoreau's.  When 
the  latter  recognized  that  his  purpose  was  just,  he 
did  not  quietly  circumvent  obstacles  by  the  way 
side  but  "  split  rocks "  till  he  attained  his  end. 
Dignity  and  reserve  seemed  to  him  prime  requisites 
of  true  manliness.  Washington  was  to  him  "a 
proper  Puritan  hero."  Thoreau  admired  his  "  erect- 
ness,"  his  simplicity  and,  above  all,  his  unswerving 
dignity  and  silence.  On  the  other  hand,  few  pas 
sages  in  his  journal  show  greater  personal  annoy 
ance  than  the  recorded  visits  of  three  ultra-reform 
ers,  with  their  cant  and  familiar  "greasy  kindness." 
With  reason,  he  resented  their  tone  of  intimacy  to 
wards  him,  their  lack  of  "healthy  reserve"  and 
their  boasted  ability  "to  dive  into  his  inmost 
depths."  With  genuine,  chivalrous  reverence  for 
all  women  who  performed  loyal,  sincere  service  to 
any  work  of  progress,  he  could  not  refrain  from  a 
mild  sarcasm  upon  the  woman  lecturer,  who  con- 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  187 

fided  to  his  pocket,  for  conveyance,  her  manuscript, 
carefully  folded  in  her  handkerchief,  and  so 
saturated  with  strong  cologne  that  the  odor  long 
permeated  his  clothes. 

His  was  the  simple,  dignified  courtesy  of  a  pure, 
earnest  nature.  Mr.  Kicketson  well  described  him 
as  "  the  personification  of  civility."  This  friend  ap 
preciated  the  latent  qualities  of  heart  which  Tho- 
reau's  later  years  especially  revealed.  Kepressed  in 
early  manhood,  these  qualities  opened  to  the  world 
with  less  frankness  than  the  traits  of  mind  and 
soul.  Among  some  letters  from  Mr.  Kicketson  to 
Miss  Sophia  Thoreau,  confided  to  my  use,  is  this 
thought, — "  I  do  not  think  that  Henry  was  fully 
revealed  "  (the  word,  developed,  had  been  written, 
and  erased  in  part),  "  and  I  had  looked  forward  to  the 
more  genial  years  of  advanced  life,  when  the  spiri 
tual  experiences  of  the  soul  should  bring  us  nearer 
together.  But  a  truer  or  better  man  I  never  knew, 
and  his  like  I  cannot  hope  to  meet  again."  Thus, 
one  may  comprehend  the  deferential  "  bared -head  " 
tribute  paid  to  this  life  of  purity  and  uprightness, 
to  this  character  full  of  reserves  of  courage  and  in 
spiration. 

It  has  been  noted  that  Thoreau's  environment 
was  best  adapted  to  develop  and  accentuate  his 
strong,  native  elements.  The  racial  traits  of  stur- 


l88  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

diness,  industry,  repression,  truth,  commingled  with 
fineness,  vivacity,  ingenuity  and  nature-love,  be 
came  amalgamated  into  a  character  singularly 
simple  yet  paradoxical,  tinctured  with  the  extreme 
philosophy  and  culture  of  the  New  England  Trans- 
cendentalists.  To  question  the  sincerity  of  his  life 
in  any  of  its  expressions,  the  Walden  incident  in 
cluded,  is  to  thrust  a  poisoned  arrow  at  the  very 
basis  of  his  character.  A  school  friend,  Mr.  Joseph 
Hosmer,  wrote, — "  He  was  the  embodiment  of  per 
fect  sincerity  and  truth ;  there  was  no  gush  or 
glamour  in  his  make-up."  With  this  sincerity  was 
an  unflinching  bravery  of  soul  which  knew  not 
faltering  before  discouragements,  misinterpreta 
tions,  grief,  even  death  itself.  Call  this  compla 
cency,  stoicism,  if  you  will,  yet  forget  not  the 
delicate  sensitiveness  of  humanity  behind  the  quiet, 
steadfast  endurance.  It  is  a  common  quotation,  as 
representative  of  his  seeming  misanthropy, — "  Men 
rarely  affect  me  as  grand  or  beautiful,  but  I  know 
that  there  is  a  sunrise  and  a  sunset  every  day." 
The  same  critics,  straining  the  meaning  of  the 
above  sentence  apart  from  its  context,  overlook  the 
sentences  so  happily  mingling  nature  and  humanity 
in  mutual  dependence, — "Nature  must  be  viewed 
humanely  to  be  viewed  at  all,  that  is,  her  senses 
must  be  associated  with  human  affections,  such  as 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  189 

are  associated  with  one's  native  place,  for  instance. 
She  is  most  significant  to  a  lover.  If  I  have  no 
friend,  what  is  nature  to  me  ?  She  ceases  to  be 
morally  significant."  (Journal,  June  30, 1852.)  The 
man,  shut  in  from  the  external  world  which  had 
been  so  large  a  part  of  his  life,  was  moved  to  tears 
and  generous  response  by  a  tune  of  his  boyhood 
days,  played  by  a  street  musician.  Such  words 
and  incidents  express  the  latent  tenderness 
of  heart  cherished  and  controlled,  yet  never 
crushed,  coexistent  with  a  complacency  and  quiet, 
steady  growth,  akin  to  that  of  nature  and  her 
laws. 

As  his  life  progressed,  the  lighter  traits  of  French 
ancestry  became  less  marked  but  they  were  never 
lost.  Even  in  his  later  life,  he  had  moods  of  merri 
ment  and  pure  relaxation.  From  his  serious  studies 
he  would  join  the  Emerson  children  in  "playing 
Esquimaux  "  in  their  snow-cave,  or  would  indulge 
in  an  occasional  hilarious  dance.  Among  Mr. 
Kicketson's  published  memorials  are  his  graphic,  de 
scriptive  verses  on  "  Thoreau's  Dance,"  a  memory 
of  an  evening  in  the  New  Bedford  home  when  the 
music  of  the  young  people  awakened  the  vivacity 
and  rhythm  of  the  mature  man  to  unique  expres 
sion.  The  analogy  of  the  versifier  is  graceful  and 
dignified : 


190  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

In  The  Harvard  Magazine  for  May,  1862,  Mr.  S. 
S.  Higginson  recalled  Thoreau's  "  elastic  spirits  "  and 
sympathetic  comradeship  on  long  walks,  resembling 
"  a  glorious  boy "  even  in  later  life.  It  has  been 
told  that  he  would  sometimes  skate  thirty  miles  in 
a  day ;  such  buoyant  delight  was  echoed  in  the 
stanzas  in  "  A  Winter  Walk  " ; — 

"  When  Winter  fringes  every  bough 

With  his  fantastic  wreath, 
And  puts  the  seal  of  silence  now 
Upon  the  leaves  beneath ; 

"  I  gambol  with  my  neighbor  ice, 

And  sympathizing  quake ; 
As  each  new  crack  darts  in  a  trice, 
Across  the  gladsome  lake." 

It  was  this  vivacity  which  gave  such  singular  pres 
ence  to  Thoreau,  for  he  lacked  striking  physique. 
In  climbing  mountains  he  seemed  to  on-lookers  to 
float  over  fences  in  mid-air  and  to  scale  the  very 
clouds  with  his  long  strides.  His  great  muscular 
strength  and  mechanical  skill  brought  him,  from  a 
stranger  whom  he  met  on  a  train,  an  offer,  of  a  posi 
tion  in  a  factory,  "  stating  conditions  and  wages,  ob 
serving  that  I  succeeded  in  shutting  the  window  of 
a  railroad  car,  when  the  other  passengers  had  failed." 
Thoreau,  with  natal  traits  of  such  diverse  kinds, 
was  an  apt  pupil  for  the  impulse  of  philosophic 
thought.  From  the  first,  however,  his  mind  was 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  191 

interested  in  the  empirical  rather  than  the  exiget- 
ical  phases  of  past  and  present  methods  of  philos 
ophy.  These  tenets  he  studied  and  dissected  but 
he  collated  such  as  appealed  to  his  needs  into  an 
individual  philosophy  of  life.  Mr.  Waldstein,  in 
his  analytic  life  of  Buskin,  has  said, — "  Euskin  is  a 
man  who  has  dared  to  live  his  thoughts."  The 
same  words  are  applicable  to  Ruskin's  antitype, 
Thoreau.  Not  alone  did  he  formulate  a  philosophy 
to  meet  the  exigencies  of  his  manhood  but  he  also 
adapted  his  life  to  the  philosophic  principles  and 
educated  his  conscience,  will,  words  and  acts  to 
embody  and  unfold  these  principles.  Without  dif 
ficulty  one  may  trace  the  practical  problems  that 
confronted  him  and  their  gradual  and  consistent 
solution.  When  he  entered  college,  with  cravings 
for  the  best  in  literature  but  with  limited  financial 
resources,  he  met  the  problem  of  education,  he 
recognized  the  defects  of  a  college  for  full  educe- 
ment  of  all  the  faculties,  and  he  solved  the  diffi 
culty  by  an  individual  tenet.  Believing  that  the 
true  life  must  be  nourished  by  the  great  thoughts 
and  poetry  of  the  past,  he  stored  his  mind  with 
classic  literature  and  such  material  on  natural  his 
tory  as  was  then  available ;  without  defiance,  but 
with  calm  judgment,  he  made  prescribed  texts  sub 
sidiary  to  these  studies  which  would  bring  him  the 


192  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

best  education.  In  other  words,  he  made  himself 
forerunner  of  the  elective  system  of  the  present. 
Again,  he  recognized  and  revolted  from  the  sordid 
mercantile  tendencies  of  the  times;  he  tested  and 
defied  the  narrow  customs  regarding  conduct  of 
life  for  a  college-bred  man.  In  nature  and  in 
poetry  were  his  sources  of  inspiration,  they  should 
become  his  business,  so  he  solved  the  problem  of 
profession  by  becoming  a  naturalist  and  poet-phi 
losopher.  The  problem  of  income  required,  as  he 
understood  the  real  purpose  of  life,  only  the  primal 
creed  of  simplicity,  the  elimination  of  useless  ac 
quired  tastes.  To  meet  the  needs  of  man  exacted 
no  excessive  labor,  only  a  healthy  industry.  He 
was  puzzled  by  the  question  of  government,  its 
duplicity  and  injustice ;  he  solved  the  dilemma  by 
advocating  individual  conscience  and  refusal  to 
support  an  unjust  state  which  overturned  its  very 
foundation-stone  of  liberty. 

One  might  easily  expand  these  problems  of  ex 
perimental  modernity  and  their  solutions  by  Tho- 
reau  until  he  had  framed  for  himself  a  program  of 
life  which  seemed  to  embody  the  essential  tenets  of 
true  philosophy.  With  this  he  would  face  life  and 
death.  Its  dogmas  he  has  expressed  so  forcefully 
that  they  are  of  vital  importance  to  the  present  gen 
eration.  Though  sometimes  his  acts  seemed  incon- 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  193 

sistent  with  his  principles,  the  actual  contradictions 
are  few  and,  in  many  cases,  a  careful  and  honest 
study  of  the  circumstances  and  motives  reveals  a 
sure,  sincere  accord  with  his  basal  creed.  Apart, 
however,  from  the  question  of  his  practical  experi 
ences,  his  propositions  and  suggestions  for  modern 
living  are  of  great  interest  and  of  increasing  value 
to  the  thoughtful  student  of  civilization.  At  Wai- 
den,  as  throughout  life,  Thoreau  never  advocated 
abstinence  as  regards  the  necessary  wants  of  civi 
lized  life.  He  never  urged  selfish  seclusion  from 
human  relations  and  services  ;  rather  he  made  his 
plea  for  temperate,  careful  adjustment  of  time  and 
necessaries  that  each  faculty  might  be  duly  nour 
ished.  His  inheritance  would  forbid  his  acquies 
cence  in  any  form  of  life  that  savored  of  the  un 
clean  or  barbaric.  Independent  of  fashions  in 
dress,  he  was  always  neatly  clad ;  indifferent  to 
many  courses  of  fancy  viands,  he  was  able  to  cook 
and  serve  plain  foods  with  skill  and  taste  ;  deplor 
ing  foolish  conceits  and  expense  in  architecture,  he 
was  ever  careful  to  construct  with  regularity  and 
grace.  In  short,  as  Mr.  Salt  has  well  said,  he  was 
"never  a  nullifier"  but  always  "a  simplifier  of 
civilization."  The  deprivations  due  to  poverty 
could  be  nullified  by  the  doctrines  of  simplicity  and 
contentment ;  the  defects  and  shams  of  society  were 


194  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

not  troublous  to  one  who  found  unfailing  compan 
ions  in  nature  and  a  few  trustful  friends.  Since 
leisure  to  think  and  "saunter"  was  a  necessary 
condition  for  sanative  life,  he  would  make  his  wants 
so  few  that  limited  labor  would  supply  them  and 
leave  him  time  for  soul-culture. 

Here  is  no  assumption  that  these  principles,  as 
emphasized  by  Thoreau,  were  to  any  extent  orig 
inal.  He  was,  in  one  sense,  the  most  mimetic  of 
men  in  his  mental  processes.  He  had  assimilated 
much  of  the  philosophy  of  Kant  and  his  school,  of 
Eousseau,  of  Coleridge,  of  Carlyle  and  of  Emerson. 
The  friendship  of  such  men  as  Brownson,  Alcott  and 
Lane,  contact  and  discussions  with  varied  scholars, 
authors,  and  men  of  simple  agrarian  tastes, — all 
such  influences  gave  him  nucleus  for  many  thoughts 
which  his  lucid  and  propulsive  mind  could  amplify, 
combine,  and  apply.  He  would  test  these  principles 
as  creed  for  daily  life.  In  him  the  practical  sa 
gacity  and  strong  sense  of  proportion,  which  com 
bined  with  his  poetry  and  philosophy,  saved  him 
from  the  vague  mysticism  and  pure  ideality  of  Al 
cott,  Ellery  Channing  and  other  friends  among  the 
Transcendentalists.  He  did,  however,  fully  incor 
porate  in  his  creed  the  basal  aim  of  their  teaching, 
— the  substitution  of  inward  light  for  outward  law 
in  the  entire  evolution  and  expression  of  his  principles. 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  195 

Again,  it  is  unjust  to  Thoreau  to  assert  that  his 
philosophy  was  only  a  spectacular  presentation  of 
Emerson's  doctrines  of  individualism,  already  pub 
lished  in  Nature,  Self -Reliance,  Friendship,  and 
other  essays.  One  could  easily  prepare  a  volume  of 
considerable  bulk  from  the  strange  parallelisms  of 
thought  found  in  the  writings  of  Emerson  and 
Thoreau,  nor  do  Emerson's  sentences  always  pre 
cede  chronologically.  That  Thoreau  was  an  imi 
tator  of  Emerson  will  be  denied,  with  proofs,  in  the 
next  chapter.  With  similarity  of  mental  outlook, 
devoted  to  the  same  forms  of  nature-communion 
and  classic  literature,  environed  by  the  same  waves 
of  philosophic  teaching  and  local  influence,  the  cor 
relations  and  similitudes  of  thought  are  entirely 
consistent  with  absolute  independence  of  character. 

Unlike  much  effort  of  the  time  towards  practical 
reform,  Thoreau's  plan  was  individualistic,  as  shown 
in  the  Walden  incident.  With  Carlyle's  respect  for 
the  hero-man  versus  the  masses,  he  asks, — "  When 
will  the  world  learn  that  a  million  of  men  are  of  no 
importance  compared  with  one  man  ?  "  This  under 
lying  principle,  which  refuted  altruism  and  utili 
tarianism,  no  less  than  communism,  permeated  his 
ideas  on  government,  society,  and  religion.  The 
individual,  not  the  state,  was  his  motto ;  self-ex 
pansion,  not  "  doing  good  for  others,"  his  ideal.  As 


196  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

regards  nature,  man  is  "an  inhabitant,  or  a  part 
and  parcel  of  nature,  rather  than  a  member  of  so 
ciety."  When  the  question  of  opposition  to  slavery 
arose,  his  preaching  was  that  his  countrymen  were 
men  first,  and  Americans  afterwards.  Thus, 
through  the  imagery  of  the  pure  water-lily,  "  part 
ner  to  no  Missouri  compromise,"  he  urged  indi 
vidual  "  purity  and  courage  which  are  immortal." 

This  individualistic  philosophy,  with  its  corollary 
of  self-improvement,  has  given  a  narrow,  seemingly 
selfish  tone  to  many  of  his  words.  The  idea,  how 
ever,  must  be  considered  in  its  entirety  and  logical 
sequence,  to  be  justly  understood.  His  own  life 
and  his  most  earnest  words  proclaim  that  self- 
expansion  should  prove  preparatory  to  the  highest 
service  for  mankind  and  society  in  generic  form. 
The  latter  should  be  constructed  to  assist,  not  to 
retard,  the  noblest  development  of  each  man  and 
woman.  At  present  the  individual  is  compelled  to 
suppress  his  nature-given  faculties  that  he  may  con 
form  to  the  usages  of  society.  Kobert  Louis  Steven 
son,  though  he  failed  to  understand  many  of 
Thoreau's  traits,  because  he  accepted  some  false 
guides,  said  forcefully  of  the  Walden  seclusion  and 
Thoreau's  later  life, — "  The  secret  of  his  retirement 
lies  not  in  misanthropy,  of  which  he  had  no  tincture, 
but  part  in  his  engrossing  design  of  self-improvement 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  197 

and  part,  in  the  real  deficiencies  of  social  intercourse." 
Thoreau  once  explained  his  isolation  as  "  a  desire 
to  soar "  and,  in  the  process,  he  found  his  compan 
ions  becoming  rapidly  less.  In  exploiting  and 
applying  his  philosophy  of  self-culture,  he  was  often 
indifferent  to  the  world  and  its  real  merits,  he  often 
showed  a  lack  of  true  altruism.  One  must,  how 
ever,  distinguish  carefully  in  both  his  teaching  and 
its  exposition.  Indifferent,  even  defiant,  to  petty 
rules  and  conventions,  which  preclude  the  natural 
cultivation  of  all  faculties,  he  is  emphatically  desir 
ous  that  life,  when  expanded  in  the  individual, 
should  share  its  fruitage  with  mankind.  After 
expansion,  comes  unfolding  and  expression.  In  one 
of  his  personal  explanations,  he  wrote ; — "  I  would 
fain  communicate  the  wealth  of  my  life  to  men, 
would  really  give  them  what  is  most  precious  in  my 
gift.  ...  I  will  sift  the  sunbeams  for  the  public 
good.  I  know  no  riches  I  would  keep  back."  Again, 
after  a  longing  for  a  life  of  seclusion  with  nature, 
he  rebuked  such  desire  and  emphasized  rather  the 
need  of  "  dropping  the  plummet  where  you  are,"  of 
present  duty  and  faithfulness ;  thus,  will  one  live  a 
"  purer,  a  more  thoughtful  and  laborious  life,  more 
true  to  your  friends  and  neighbors,  more  noble  and 
magnanimous,  and  that  will  be  better  than  a  wild 
walk." 


198  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

Thoreau  had  trifling  patience  with  showy  charity 
or  with  long-faced,  cantish  reformers.     Distinguish 
ing  between  philanthropy,  in  its  restricted  sense, 
and  true  service  to  humanity  in  the  broad  way,  he 
wrote, — "  I  would  not  subtract  anything  from  the 
praise  that  is  due  to  philanthropy,  but  merely  de 
mand  justice  for  air  who  by  their  lives  and  works 
are  a  blessing  to  mankind."     Again,  in  character 
istic  form,  is  his  creed  of  unpretentious  service, — 
"  Kescue  the  drowning  and  tie  your  shoe-strings." 
In  his  exposition  of  such  principles  in  real  life,  he 
was  ever  ready  with  loving  service.      Among  ex 
amples  is  the  story  of  his  devotion  to  a  fugitive 
slave  who  rested  for  a  day  at  the  Thoreau  home, 
probably  the  incident  mentioned  in  his  journal,  for 
October  1,  1851.     A  friend,  who  was  then  a  visitor 
in  the  family,  relates  Thoreau's  tender  care  for  the 
slave,  his  personal  attentions  to  his  food  and  rest, 
even  bathing  the  poor,  tired  feet  and,  as  a  crown 
ing  self-abnegation,  renouncing  his  afternoon  walk 
to  stand  guard  over  the  fugitive  all  day.     In  the 
historical   collection   at  Concord,  in  the   Thoreau 
room,  stands  a  crude  and  striking  piece  of  china. 
It  is  one  of  those  unique  statues  of  "  Uncle  Tom  " 
holding  Eva  upon  his  knee ;  one  of  many  odd  de 
vices  of  picture  and  cast  brought  into  temporary 
vogue   by   the   popularity  of  Mrs.   Stowe's  novel. 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  199 

Mr.  Tolman,  the  custodian  of  the  treasure-house, 
who  was  once  resident  in  the  Thoreau  house,  relates 
that  this  memento  was  bought  for  Thoreau  by  this 
slave  whom  he  had  so  lovingly  tended.  Keturning 
from  Canada  to  Boston,  the  negro  spent  his  last 
penny  for  the  gift,  and  walked  from  Boston  to  Con 
cord  to  give  it  to  his  friend.  Thoreau  was  deeply 
appreciative  of  the  gratitude  and  always  treasured 
the  gift  and  its  association. 

Another  anecdote  recently  told  in  print  indicated 
his  readiness  to  aid  any  person  in  real  need.  Walk 
ing  with  a  friend  in  a  street  near  the  station,  he  saw 
a  poor  woman  with  a  heavy  child  in  her  arms, 
hurrying  to  reach  the  train  that  was  about  to  de 
part.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation,  Thoreau 
jumped  the  intervening  fence,  took  the  child  from 
the  tired  mother,  and  striding  forward,  persuaded, 
— or  compelled,— the  engineer  to  wait  until  the 
woman  could  arrive.  All  the  strenuous  words  and 
acts  of  his  later  years  in  behalf  of  John  Brown  and 
freedom,  testify  to  his  zeal  in  service  for  a  large 
cause. 

In  Thoreau's  philosophy  of  self-development  as 
preparatory  for  service,  certain  basal  tenets  are  in 
volved.  Preeminent  are  the  coeval  necessities  of 
industry  and  leisure.  Emerson  said  of  him, — "A 
very  industrious  man,  and  setting,  like  all  highly- 


200  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

organized  men,  a  high  value  on  his  time,  he  seemed 
the  only  man  of  leisure  in  the  town,  always  ready 
for  any  excursion  that  promised  well,  or  for  con 
versation  prolonged  into  late  hours."  Again,  Chan- 
ning  bore  testimony  to  the  ultimate  end  of  Tho- 
reau's  life  as  "  work."  In  modern  life  we  need  to 
ponder  well  Thoreau's  thoughts  on  these  two  neces 
sities  for  true  growth.  If  leisure,  the  essential  for 
real  expansion  of  mind  and  soul,  is  fast  becoming 
obsolete  in  this  "  nation  in  a  hurry,"  so  work,  in 
Thoreau's  use  of  the  term,  is  being  supplemented 
by  nervous  competition.  Work  as  a  healthful, 
joyous  expression  of  life  is  allied  to  poetry.  Forty 
years  ago  he  drew  sharp  antitheses  between  this 
true  industry  and  the  peace-destroying,  soul-sap 
ping  excitements  of  commercialism.  His  readers, 
perforce,  wonder  what  polemics  he  would  have 
uttered  against  the  tyrannous,  nervous  methods  of 
current  life.  Among  the  most  spicy  passages  in 
"  Walden  "  is  a  tirade  against  such  kind  of  activity, 
which  he  calls  "  Saint  Yitus's  Dance."  Against  the 
threatening  national  tendency  to  "rush,"  now  a 
sad,  pervasive  symptom  in  all  places,  he  wrote  with 
warning, — "Men  say  that  a  stitch  in  time  saves 
nine,  and  so  they  take  a  thousand  stitches  to-day  to 
save  nine  to-morrow." 

Like  Euskin  and  his  pupil,  William  Morris,  Thoreau 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  201 

always  accentuated  the  poetic  relation  between  the 
workman  and  his  work.  In  "  A  Week  "  he  wrote 
with  poetic  thought, — "Behind  every  man's  busy 
ness  there  should  be  a  level  of  undisturbed  serenity 
and  industry,  as  within  the  reef  encircling  a  coral 
isle  there  is  always  an  expanse  of  still  water,  where 
the  depositions  are  going  on  which  will  finally  raise 
it  above  the  surface."  With  despair,  to-day,  one 
recalls  his  maxim, — "  Do  not  hire  a  man  who  does 
your  work  for  money,  but  him  who  does  it  for  love 
and  pay  him  well."  Work  to  him,  as  to  Carlyle, 
was  a  religion.  It  must  be  performed  faithfully, 
however  slight ;  "  drive  a  nail  home  and  clinch  it 
so  faithfully  thai:  you  can  wake  up  in  the  night  and 
think  of  your  work  with  satisfaction."  Joy  and 
faithfulness  always  coalesced  in  his  work.  He 
took  pride  in  having  the  timbers  of  the  Walden 
lodge  well  mortised  and  tenoned.  The  famous 
little  study  which  Alcott  tried  to  construct  for 
Emerson,  in  the  latter's  garden,  was  a  source  of 
annoyed  amusement  to  Thoreau  because  of  its  lack 
of  perspective  and  the  impractical  upward  curve  of 
the  eaves  and  moss-lined  roof.  It  soon  merited  the 
name,  "  The  Euin,"  given  to  it  by  Madam  Emer 
son.  We  are  told  that  Thoreau  drove  the  nails, 
and  their  security  was  in  sharp  contrast  with  the 
fairy -like  structure  of  the  roof. 


202  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

As  workman  and  writer  he  was  always  method 
ical  and  intense.  He  measured  the  height  of 
the  toadstool  and  the  Highland  Lighthouse.  He 
always  worked  with  concentration,  yet  never  with 
such  haste  as  to  prevent  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
work.  He  applied  his  own  advice  to  keep  all  the 
faculties  in  repose  save  the  one  in  use.  We  hear 
much  to-day  of  the  interrelations  of  brain  and 
manual  work  and  the  best  means  of  associating 
both  with  nature.  Thoreau  in  America,  as  Ruskin 
and  Jefferies  in  England,  early  advocated  this  alli 
ance  of  outdoor  tasks  and  sanative  studies.  In  his 
bean-field  at  Walden,  on  his  botanical  excursions, 
in  surveying  and  fence-building,  in  writing  and 
studying,  he  met  the  requisite  demands  of  both 
work  and  leisure.  Like  many  salient  dogmas  of 
the  best  creeds,  this  combination  is  not  always 
possible ;  Thoreau's  independent  circumstances  en 
abled  him  to  appropriate  more  leisure  than  others 
could  afford.  The  doctrine,  however,  is  true  and 
deserves  all  the  emulation  which  environment  can 
be  forced  to  yield. 

Industry  and  leisure,  if  rightly  related  in  kind 
and  measure,  will  develop  contentment  and  cheer, 
the  ultimate  end  in  all  philosophy  of  experimental 
trend.  Thoreau  suggests  a  vital  and  universal 
truth  when  he  says  of  himself,  that  "  enthusiasm 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  203 

in  youth"  became  "temperament"  in  manhood. 
At  Walden  his  enthusiasm  was  symbolized  by 
chanticleer,  to  "  wake  his  neighbors  up."  This 
gleeful  enjoyment  of  nature  and  life  found  more 
serene,  yet  no  less  emphatic,  statements  in  the 
temperamental  writings  of  more  mature  years. 
"  Life  is  not  for  complaint  but  for  satisfac 
tion."  .  .  .  "Why  should  we  not  meet,  not 
always  as  dyspeptics,  to  tell  our  bad  dreams,  but 
sometimes  as  eupeptics,  to  congratulate  each  other 
on  the  ever-glorious  morning."  Thoreau  realized 
that  to  maintain  the  equable  division  of  work  and 
leisure,  to  attain  contentment  and  cheer,  there  must 
be  readjustment  of  the  standards  of  civilization. 
In  other  words,  he  based  his  philosophy  on  the 
transcendental  doctrine  of  the  simplification  of  life. 
In  looking  at  society,  he  found  commercialism  and 
anxiety,  sham  and  artifice,  injustice  and  suffering, 
and  these  contending  armies  seemed  called  into 
battle  by  the  complex  demands  of  modern  life. 
To  "  reduce  life  to  its  lowest  terms,"  to  separate 
the  essential  from  the  artificial,  to  satisfy  the 
natural  cravings  of  senses,  brain,  and  heart,  and 
preclude  the  merely  acquired  tastes  from  becoming 
tyrannous, — such  formed  the  pivotal  point  of  his 
creed.  "  Probe  the  earth  and  see  where  your  main 
roots  run."  Walden  tested  and  proved  the  doctrine 


204  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

of  simplicity  to  the  satisfaction  of  Thoreau, and 

his  later  life,  though  it  brought  somewhat  broader 
opportunities  and  enticements  to  complex  life,  did 
not  swerve  him  from  his  fixed  aim.  What  began 
as  a  philosophic  ideal,  became  an  art  of  living. 
"  My  greatest  skill  has  been  to  want  but  little." 
Like  Kuskin,  he  waged  continual  warfare  upon  the 
common  desire  "to  get  on  in  the  world,"  substi 
tuting  the  mere  "  trappings  of  life  "  for  the  true 
joy  of  living. 

Two  thoughts  are  significant  in  connection  with 
Thoreau's  doctrine  of  simplification  of  life.  One 
has  already  been  emphasized, — his  careful  distinc 
tion  between  savagery  and  civilization.  The  super 
fluities  of  modern  habits,  never  the  real  necessities 
of  pure,  uplifting  life,  represented  his  fractions  to 
be  eliminated.  He  always  admired  such  accessories 
of  modern  life  and  invention  as  contributed  to  the 
aid  and  development  of  man.  His  thoughts  often 
contemplated  with  pleasure  the  great  medium  of 
commerce  by  ships  or  railways.  He  would  have 
welcomed  the  modern  devices  for  agriculture,  un 
known  in  his  day,  which  minimize  the  farmer's 
drudgery  and  lessen  his  hours  of  labor.  Merely 
acquired  tastes,  from  continued  indulgence,  seem  to 
us  necessities;  such  he  would  reduce,  that  living 
might  become  more  easeful  and  restful.  From  the 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  205 

midst  of  our  crowded  life  to-day,  multiform  in  ac 
quired  tastes  since  the  days  of  Thoreau,  we  go  away 
for  a  few  weeks  of  simple,  direct  contact  with 
nature  in  her  wildness  and  her  peace.  "We  supply 
only  needs ;  we  rejoice  in  temporary  non-conform 
ity  ;  we  read  Thoreau  and  his  successors  in  nature- 
communion;  we  resolve  to  follow  his  plan  for 
simplification,  "  instead  of  three  meals  a  day  if  it 
be  necessary,  eat  but  one ;  instead  of  a  hundred 
dishes,  five  ;  and  reduce  other  things  in  proportion." 
On  return,  we  make  one  or  two  spasmodic  efforts 
to  simplify  but  we  lose  courage  at  some  neighbor's 
amaze  and  sarcasm.  Though  the  brief  experience 
has  shown  us  that  Thoreau  found  the  true  secret  of 
growth  for  mind  and  soul,  that  he  knew  how  to  win 
contentment,  yet  we  abandon  his  ideas  again  and 
fall  into  "  this  chopping  sea  of  civilized  life."  We 
enter  again  with  weak,  dejected  souls  the  competi 
tion,  and  "  rush  "  from  hour  to  hour,  breathlessly 
demanding  the  "  latest  edition  "  and  feeling  a  mo 
mentary  satisfaction  when  we  get  "  the  six  o'clock 
latest "  four  hours  before  it  is  due.  At  such  times, 
one  realizes  with  new  force  the  manliness  and  soul- 
courage  of  Thoreau  who  "dared  to  live  his 
thoughts." 

In  the  second  place,  this  creed  of  simplification 
did  not  imply  resignation.     Recall  his  own  words 


206  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

in  "  Walden  "  ; — "  I  did  not  wish  to  live  what  was 
not  life,  living  is  so  dear  ;  nor  did  I  wish  to  practise 
resignation,  unless  it  was  quite  necessary."  Wealth 
and  poverty  are  entirely  relative  concepts.  The 
omission  of  the  artificial  seemed  to  him  merely  a 
reasonable  and  advantageous  reform  which  brought 
contentment,  not  resignation.  A  critic  has  well 
said, — "  Thoreau  represents  himself  as  an  epicure 
rather  than  an  ascetic."  He  weighed  the  wealth- 
acquiring  habit  against  the  commensurate  depriva 
tions  of  freedom  and  leisure,  time  to  enjoy  nature 
and  books,  and  to  him  the  student,  supplying  phys 
ical  wants  and  cultivating  mind  and  soul,  seemed 
the  true  man  of  wealth.  He  was  to  be  envied, — 
perhaps  he  is,— by  his  brother  plodding  among  the 
flesh-pots  of  Egypt.  His  text  was  akin  to  the 
couplet  of  Young ; 

"  Who  lives  to  nature  rarely  can  be  poor  ; 
Who  lives  to  fancy  never  can  be  rich." 

Emerson  said  of  Thoreau, — "  He  knew  how  to  be 
poor  without  the  least  hint  of  squalor  or  inele 
gance."  Thoreau  would,  indeed,  combat  that  term, 
"  poor  " ;  his  philosophy  had  taught  him  that  "  a 
man  is  rich  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  things 
which  he  can  afford  to  let  alone." 

If  simplicity,  sincerity,  leisure,  industry,  content- 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  207 

ment,  were  at  the  roots  of  his  philosophy,  its 
branches  were  truth,  purity,  justice  and  faith.  It 
would  be  tautologic  to  example  these  traits  in 
Thoreau's  life.  They  were  its  firm,  increasing  ele 
ments,  they  became  the  motors  of  steadfast,  noble 
acts  and  words.  Truth  was  the  beacon  of  his  char 
acter,  and  its  full  glare  he  turned  upon  his  ideals, 
his  deeds  and  his  faith.  Like  all  men  of  poetic 
nature,  he  often  felt  that  he  failed  to  attain  his  most 
desired  aspirations.  In  his  journals,  he  reiterates 
his  failures;  in  answer  to  the  possible  charge  of 
egotism  in  thought,  though  it  was  often  present  in 
manner,  he  confesses  a  consciousness  of  his  own  un- 
worthiness  and  declares  that  none  can  esteem  him 
so  faulty  as  does  his  own  conscience.  Though 
dogmatic  in  announcing  the  details  of  his  principles 
for  conduct,  he  was  always  humble  in  comments  on 
his  ideals  and  their  application; — "Be  resolutely 
and  faithfully  what  you  are,  be  humbly  what  you 
aspire  to  be." 

Literature  cannot  show  example  of  a  man  of 
greater  purity  of  thought  and  deed  than  was  Tho- 
reau.  He  recognized  in  nature  the  constant  query, 
— "  Are  you  virtuous  ?  Then  you  may  behold  me." 
Any  lapse  from  absolute  cleanliness  of  thought  or 
word  met  his  instant,  vehement  denunciation,  any 
coarseness  or  vulgarity  he  could  never  endure.  His 


208  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

religion  was  of  the  intellect  and  the  soul  rather 
than  of  the  emotions,  except  where  his  poetic  sense 
made  appeal.  Kejecting  narrow,  sectarian  formu 
las,  satirizing  the  churches  of  his  day  as  hospitals 
for  sick  souls,  he  was  from  first  to  last  a  Deist  and 
a  Pantheist.  As  his  studies  of  various  religions  in 
creased  he  became,  like  Emerson  and  many  others 
of  that  age,  broadly  religious,  always  emphasizing 
the  beauties  and  morality  of  the  world's  religions. 
Never  did  he  lose  faith  in  one  Power,  in  Jesus,  and 
in  immortality.  Reference  to  his  Pantheism  recalls 
Thoreau's  difference  with  Lowell  which,  doubtless, 
affected  the  tone  of  the  latter's  essay  in  "  My 
Study  Windows."  While  Lowell  was  editor  of 
The  Atlantic,  Thoreau  sent  to  the  magazine  his 
papers  on  "  Chesuncook,"  later  a  part  of  "  The 
Maine  Woods."  In  a  sentence  descriptive  of  a 
lofty  pine  the  author  said,  partly  in  pantheistic 
fervor,  partly  in  that  humorous  hyperbole  which 
was  his  wont, — "  It  is  as  immortal  as  I  am,  and 
perchance  will  go  to  as  high  a  heaven,  there  to 
tower  above  me  still."  Lowell,  fearful  of  the  result 
of  such  doctrine  upon  some  of  his  readers,  sup 
pressed  this  portion  of  the  paragraph,  without  con 
sulting  Thoreau.  Such  a  deed  was  so  hateful  to 
the  principles  of  freedom  and  justice  in  the  author's 
nature  that  he  recalled  the  rest  of  the  essays.  He 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  209 

referred  to  the  matter  in  his  journal  and  letters  as 
"  a  liberty  for  which  the  gold  of  California  could 
not  requite  me." 

With  such  independence  and  self-reliance,  that 
sometimes  savored  of  hauteur,  with  his  broad, 
scholarly,  religious  speculations,  he  showed  through 
out  life  a  childlike  faith  as  perfect  as  that  of 
Browning  or  Whittier.  In  his  first  book  is  in 
cluded  the  poem  of  trust,  deemed  worthy  a  place  in 
Mr.  Stedman's  Anthology,  with  its  simple  expres 
sion  of  faith, — 

"  I  will  not  doubt  the  love  untold, 

Which  not  my  worth  or  want  hath  bought ; 
Which  wooed  me  young  and  wooes  me  old, 
And  to  this  evening  hath  me  brought." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Blake  in  1848  are  the  words, — "  I 
know  that  another  is  who  knows  more  than  I,  who 
takes  an  interest  in  me,  whose  creature  and  yet 
whose  kindred  in  one  sense  am  I.  I  know  that 
things  work  well.  I  have  heard  no  bad  news." 
Despite  the  shams  and  wrongs  of  society,  despite 
the  affronts  to  God  and  man  from  daily  evil,  there  is 
ever  a  sure  optimism  in  Thoreau's  teachings. 
"  Walden  "  closes  with  an  outburst  of  joyful  prom 
ise, — "Only  that  day  dawns  to  which  we  are 
awake.  There  is  more  day  to  dawn.  The  sun  is 
but  a  morning  star." 


210  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

Thoreau's  philosophy,  lived  and  tested  as  an  art, 
was  fitted  to  his  sickness  and  to  his  health,  and  en 
dured  triumphant  to  the  end.  In  the  primeval  life 
at  Walden,  in  the  full  vigor  of  mountain  excursion, 
in  the  study,  in  the  lecture-hall,  in  the  sick-room,  he 
was  able  to  live  his  ideas  and  to  fulfil  his  creed. 
He  had  maintained  that  life  was  a  battle, "  on  a  bed 
of  sickness  or  in  the  tented  field."  He  had  urged 
courage  to  the  very  end,  for  "  despair  and  postpone 
ment  are  cowardice  and  defeat."  With  a  tempera 
ment  at  once  fine  and  strong,  with  a  dauntless  will 
trained  by  years  of  simple,  courageous  life,  he  lived 
his  philosophy  to  the  last  day  of  his  life.  His  sim 
ple  tastes,  his  sincere  words,  his  constant  industry, 
his  needful  leisure,  his  unswerving  contentment  and 
joy,  his  perfect  faith  in  the  future, — these  tenets 
were  maintained,  even  exampled,  to  the  finish  of 
the  brave  life.  And  this  is  the  man  that  Stevenson 
calls  a  "  Skulker  "  ! 

While  all  must  recognize  the  merits  and  practical 
consistency  of  Thoreau's  philosophy,  it  is  impossible 
to  defend  it  from  the  charges  of  narrowness  and 
prejudice.  Like  Carlyle,  he  refused  to  bring  all 
matters  within  his  focus  for  a  clear,  sure  vision. 
He  exaggerated  the  defects,  even  as  he  minimized 
the  benefits  of  society.  He  had  lofty  ideals  of 
friendship  and  many  devoted  friends  but  for  society 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  211 

as  a  unit  he  had  little  sympathy  and  much  unjust 
criticism.  He  was  not  misanthropic  but  rather 
ultra-individualistic.  Against  newspapers  as  ex 
ponents  of  trivialities,  of  the  sensational  and  the 
superficial,  he  was  denunciatory,  often  fractious.  He 
queried  if  it  were  wise  for  him  to  read  even  one 
newspaper  a  week ;  what  anathemas  would  he  have 
breathed  against  this  era  of  sensational  journalism 
and  its  supremacy  ?  For  his  own  self -improvement 
he  deemed  further  contact  with  the  world,  through 
social  clubs  or  travel,  not  alone  unwise  but  deleter 
ious.  He  did  not  assume,  however,  that  such  com 
plete  isolation  would  be  a  universal  benefit.  In 
truth,  he  compared  himself  to  a  man  whose  temper 
ament  could  not  endure  much  wine,  so  his  nature 
found  much  society  a  distraction,  even  an  injury. 
He  reiterates,  however, — "  But  I  say  that  I  have  no 
scheme  about  it, — no  designs  on  man  at  all." 

With  that  inexplicable  pleasure  in  futile  specula 
tions,  that  characterizes  some  minds,  the  question 
has  been  raised  regarding  the  probable  effects  of 
travel  and  more  society  upon  Thoreau's  nature.  If 
he  had  survived  the  war,  would  he  have  maintained 
the  interest  in  national  affairs  which  he  disclosed  as 
life  was  ending  ?  Would  not -con tact  with  broader 
and  more  varied  minds  have  changed  his  eccentrici 
ties  into  strong,  yet  gracious,  influences  ?  Such 


212  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

questions  are    of    no   avail.      Personalities,   when 
changed  by  individual  imaginations  or  desires,  lose 
their  identity;   they  must  be  considered  as  they 
actually  existed.     Poe,  with  poise  and  restraint, 
would  not  have  been  the  visionary  poet  of  u  Ula- 
lume  "  and  "  The  Kaven."     De  Quincey,  unallured 
by  drugs  and  dreams,  would  not  have  been  the  au 
thor   of  the  matchless  "  Confessions."     Abraham 
Lincoln,  with  broad  refinement,  would  no  longer  be 
the  same  unique,   paradoxical,   intrepid  statesman. 
Thoreau,   under  widening  influences  and  distrac 
tions,  would  have  lost  force  and  depth.     Thoreau's 
philosophy,  his  life,  his  writings,  are  of  lasting  in 
terest  and  value  because  they  are  so  intensive,  so 
focalized,  yet  reflective  of  the  passing  phases  of  the 
mental  period  in  which  he  lived,  and  prophetic  of 
the  threatening  dangers  revealed  to  his  soul  in  its 
seclusion  and  serenity.    Mr.  Burroughs  has  said, — 
"  An  extreme  product  of  civilization  and  of  modern 
culture,  he  was  yet  as  untouched  by  the  worldly 
and  commercial  spirit  of  his  age  and  country  as  any 
red  man  that  ever  haunted  the  shores  of  his  native 
stream."     Such  analogous  comment  is  misleading. 
Thoreau  was  not  "  untouched "  by  these  tendencies 
but  he  was,  more  truly,  untainted  by  them.     He 
knew  well  the  elements  which  corrupt  and  degrade 
society,  he  felt  their  effect  at  times  with  deep  re- 


THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY  213 

gret,  but  he  became  master  of  circumstances,  and 
he  made  himself  exempt  from  their  control. 

As  if  in  answer  to  the  suggested  effect  of  broad 
ening  his  sympathies,  is  the  significant  passage  in 
the  journal  for  November  12,  1853,  now  included 
in  "  Autumn  " : — "  I  cannot  but  regard  it  as  a  kind 
ness  in  those  who  have  had  the  steering  of  me,  that 
by  want  of  pecuniary  wealth,  I  have  been  nailed 
down  to  this  native  region  so  long  and  so  steadily, 
and  made  to  study  and  love  this  spot  of  earth  more 
and  more.  What  would  signify  in  comparison  a 
thin  and  diffused  love  and  knowledge  of  the  whole 
earth  instead,  got  by  wandering  ?  Wealth  will  not 
buy  a  man  a  home  in  nature." 

By  study,  assimilation,  and  actual  experiment, 
Thoreau  framed  an  individual  philosophy.  This  he 
adopted  and  exampled  in  a  life,  in  the  main,  con 
sistent  and  happy.  For  such  reasons,  he  can  speak 
as  a  seer  to  these  later  decades.  He  foretold  the 
necessary  conditions,  the  foundation-stones  of  a 
moral  and  uplifting  community, — simplicity,  integ 
rity,  work,  and  contentment.  He  prophesied  the 
decadence  of  fibres  of  intellect  and  soul  in  a  civili 
zation  which  becomes  careless  of  the  higher  nature, 
which  becomes  absorbed  in  materialism,  luxuries, 
and  artificial  society.  To  guard  against  such  temp 
tations  for  himself  and  mankind,  he  found  sanative 


214  THOREAU'S  PHILOSOPHY 

blessings  in  joyful  industry,  nature-comradeship, 
simple  tastes,  and  spiritual  refreshment  and  serenity. 
Many  of  the  conditions  of  contemporaneous  life  evi 
dence  the  sure  vision  and  the  moral  insight  of  this 
philosopher.  In  retrospect,  as  well  as  in  prophecy, 
we  can  recognize  his  practical  wisdom,  we  can  still 
gain  recuperation  and  inspiration  in  his  messages, 
that  seem  to  have  added  pertinence  and  potency  in 
these  later  decades,  thrilling  with  the  spirit  of  re 
form  for  the  sociological  and  industrial  evils  that 
confront  this  new  century. 


Thoreau  and  His  Friends 


CHAPTEE  YII 

THOKEAU   AND   HIS   FRIENDS 

A  KISTOTLE  was  one  of  Thoreau's  favorite 
/~\.  authors;  it  would  seem  as  if  the  New 
England  poet-philosopher  applied  in  his  life  the 
definition  of  friendship  given  by  the  Greek  sage, — 
"  One  soul  abiding  in  two  bodies."  The  affinity 
demanded  by  Thoreau  is  seldom  approximated  in 
the  most  perfect  loyalty  of  friends.  In  the  essay, 
first  published  in  "  A  Week,"  are  many  rhapsodic 
suggestions  akin  to  Emerson's  transcendental  ideas 
upon  the  same  theme  of  friendship.  Thoreau's 
aspiration,  which  became  virtually  an  exaction, 
was  that  the  true  friend,  "  a  pure,  divine  affinity," 
should  be  so  closely  in  touch  with  his  friends,  in 
their  thoughts  especially,  that  he  should  treat  them 
"  not  as  what  they  were,  but  as  what  they  aspired 
to  be."  In  turn,  the  true  friend  will  be  content 
with  this  recognition  of  his  potential  nobleness  and 
will  ask  no  other  boon.  He  will  strive  daily  to 
merit  such  apotheosis, — ;c  Friends  should  live  not  in 
harmony  but  in  melody." 

It  has  been   suggested,  with  some  plausibility, 
217 


218        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

that  Thoreau's  romantic  and  poetic  ideas  on  friend 
ship  were  closely  linked  with  his  early  repressed 
love.  Moreover,  his  insistence  on  the  bond  of 
relation,  which  needs  no  explanations,  was  accord 
ant  with  his  peculiar  reticence  and  independence, 
no  less  than  his  absolute  sincerity.  There  are 
sentences,  especially  in  his  early  writings,  vibrant 
with  memory  of  the  tender  heart-love  between  man 
and  woman,  while  some  of  his  later  words  on 
friendship  seem  iterations  of  this  deep,  unsatisfied 
affection.  His  thoughts  on  "  Love  and  Chastity  " 
are  unsurpassed  in  beauty  of  concept  and  form ; — 
"  A  hero's  love  is  as  delicate  as  a  maiden's.  .  .  . 
"We  should  not  surrender  ourselves  heartily  to  any 
while  we  are  conscious  that  another  is  more 
deserving  of  our  love."  Perchance  that  subtle 
sentence  explains  Thoreau's  refusal  to  entertain 
thoughts  of  marriage,  though  his  friends  assure  us 
that  two  women  were  quite  willing,  even  anxious,  to 
link  their  lives  with  his.  In  one  letter  to  Emerson 
he  makes  a  quiet,  firm  reference  to  such  fact  and 
his  immediate  decision.  ("  Familiar  Letters,"  p.  116.) 
His  few  references  to  love  between  the  sexes, 
however,  are  submerged  beneath  the  more  generic 
love  of  friends,  without  which  our  life  is  "like  coke 
and  ashes."  Thoreau's  lofty  aspirations  were,  of 
necessity,  often  unfulfilled,  as  his  letters  and 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        219 

journals  indicate.  Explanations  and  testimonies 
seemed  to  him  an  insult  to  friendship.  He  ac 
knowledges  this  inability  on  his  own  part  to  resort 
to  confessions  and  guarantees,  a  reserve  due  not  to 
pride,  he  says,  but  to  his  assured  faith  that  the  true 
friends  will  understand  without  explanations,  which 
merely  cheapen  a  loving  relationship.  His  friend's 
atmosphere  must  be  fully  in  accord  with  his  own  or 
"  it  is  no  use  to  stay."  The  language  of  friendship 
must  be,  not  in  words,  but  in  latent,  constant 
affinity. 

In  spite  of  these  somewhat  nebulous  visions  of 
the  poet,  Thoreau  in  daily  life,  was  one  of  the  most 
generous,  helpful  friends.  Channing  said  with 
truth, — "  He  was  at  the  mercy  of  no  caprice ;  of  a 
reliable  will  and  uncompromising  sternness  in  his 
moral  nature,  he  carried  the  same  qualities  into  his 
relations  with  others,  and  gave  them  the  best  he 
had,  without  stint."  His  real  value  as  a  friend,  as 
too  often  is  the  case,  received  the  first,  full  recog 
nition  in  his  obituary  notices.  He  had  tried  to 
apply  his  own  ideals  in  his  friendships ;  he  had 
loved  freely,  unchangingly,  as  he  loved  God,  "  with 
no  more  danger  that  our  love  will  be  unrequited  or 
ill-bestowed."  In  later  life,  however,  he  grieved 
over  some  criticisms  and  misunderstandings  on  the 
part  of  some  earlier  friends.  Frequent  references 


220        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

regret  that  he  is  regarded  as  "cold"  and  too 
reserved.  To  him  such  criticism  seemed  merely  a 
divergence  of  friendship,  a  lack  of  true,  warm 
entente.  No  reader  can  fail  to  note  the  tone  of 
gentle  sadness  which  Thoreau  displayed  when  com 
menting  on  such  misinterpretation  of  his  steadfast 
loyalty,  which  he  could  not  stoop  to  repeat  in  mere 
words.  With  a  tender  patience,  he  wrote  of  his 
death, — "  And  then  I  think  of  those  amongst  men 
who  will  know  that  I  love  them,  though  I  tell  them 
not." 

Perhaps  such  persistence  in  reserve  and  aspi 
rations  indicated,  to  a  surface  reader,  a  super- 
sensitive,  impractical,  even  obstinate,  temperament. 
Granting  the  existence  of  some  natal  qualities  of 
this  sort,  these  lofty  ideals  were  also  the  expression 
of  the  poet  and  the  moral  reformer.  They  resulted 
from  his  acceptance  of  many  transcendental  beliefs, 
from  his  appeal  to  the  intuitive,  spiritual  nature. 
Among  significant  notes  that  illumine  this  theme  is 
the  journal  paragraph,  in  "  Winter,"  for  December 
12,  1851 ; — "  In  regard  to  my  friends,  I  feel  that  I 
know  and  have  communion  with  a  finer  and  subtler 
part  of  themselves  which  does  not  put  me  off  when 
they  put  me  off,  which  is  not  cold  to  me  when  they 
are  cold,  not  till  I  am  cold.  I  hold  by  a  deeper  and 
stronger  tie  than  absence  can  sunder."  Again,  in 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        221 

March,  1856,  he  refers  to  two  friends  who  failed  to 
meet  his  tests  of  friendship,  one  who  offered  friend 
ship  "  on  such  terms  that  I  could  not  accept  it 
without  a  sense  of  degradation,"  who  sought  to 
patronize  him  ;  the  other,  through  obtuseness,  "  did 
not  recognize  a  fact  which  the  dignity  of  friendship 
would  by  no  means  allow  me  to  descend  so  far  as 
to  speak  of,  and  yet  the  inevitable  effect  of  that 
ignorance  was  to  hold  us  apart  forever."  Without 
any  offensive  details  intime,  how  fully  these  com 
ments  reveal  the  dignity  and  lofty  uprightness,  the 
delicacy  and  nobleness  of  Thoreau's  heart  and  soul ! 
To  a  casual  thinker,  it  might  seem  as  if  a  man 
who  had  such  cerulean  ideals  for  friendship,  who 
mingled  a  supersensitiveness  and  severity  in  his 
demands,  would  find  few  practical  friends  who 
could  approximate  his  standards.  On  the  contrary, 
Thoreau  was  a  friend,  deeply  loved  and  eagerly 
sought  by  men  and  women  of  diverse  natures. 
With  all  his  ideal  demands,  he  mingled  a  rare 
charity  for  actual  words  and  acts ;  he  was  person 
ally  humble  and  full  of  practical  aid.  He  was  ready 
to  appreciate  the  services  of  his  friends,  capable  of 
understanding  their  generous  motives,  even  better 
than  their  impulsive  acts,  he  was  a  cheerful,  intel 
lectual  comrade,  though  always  disparaging  his 
own  merits  in  idealizing  the  qualities  of  his  friends. 


222         THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

He  once  declared  that  his  distinction  among  his 
friends  must  be  that  "of  the  greatest  bore  they 
ever  had."  Among  some  passages  from  letters  to 
his  Western  correspondent,  Mr.  Greene,  is  a  com 
ment,  called  forth  by  an  expressed  desire  to  see 
Thoreau,  in  which  he  derides  himself  as  "  the  stut 
tering,  blundering,  clodhopper  that  I  am,  not 
worth  a  visit" 

While  he  was  a  wise  and  entertaining  comrade 
and  a  practical  helper  in  any  possible  way  for  his 
friends,  he  was  especially  venerated  by  some  as  a 
father-confessor  and  a  spiritual  guide.  Mr.  Emer 
son,  in  his  funeral  eulogy,  referred  to  the  worship 
given  Thoreau  by  those  who  recognized  his  qual 
ities  of  soul  as  well  as  brain ;  his  letters  and  those 
of  his  sister  testify  to  the  many  requests  for  advice, 
both  on  practical  and  moral  themes,  during  his  later 
life,  and  the  wide-spread  appeal  to  him  for  inspira 
tion  and  courageous  incentive.  While  always  ready 
to  aid  where  his  words  or  acts  could  do  real  service, 
he  disliked  any  semblance  of  dogmatism,  he  never 
posed  as  a  preacher  or  prophet,  and  in  many  cases 
answered  the  requests  for  advice  by  a  dignified. 
courteous  refusal,  and  an  adjuration  to  the  seeker 
to  consult  his  own  higher  nature  and  educate  his 
own  conscience  to  become  his  guide.  Among  his 
friends,  none  has  more  fittingly  commemorated  his 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        223 

helpful  traits,  his  true  services  to  friendship,  than 
Channing,  in  the  personal  lines : — 

"  Thus  Henry  lived, 

Considerate  to  his  kind.     His  love  bestowed 
Was  not  a  gift  in  fractions,  half-way  done  ; 
But  with  some  mellow  goodness  like  a  sun, 
He  shone  o'er  mortal  thoughts  and  taught  their  buds 
To  blossom  early,  thence  ripe  fruit  and  seed. 
Forbearing  too  oft  counsel,  yet  with  blows 
By  pleasing  reason  urged  he  touched  their  thought 
As  with  a  mild  surprise,  and  they  were  good, 
Even  as  if  they  knew  not  whence  that  motive  came, 
Nor  yet  suspected  that  from  Henry's  heart  — 
His  warm,  confiding  heart, — the  impulse  flowed." 

At  mention  of  Thoreau's  friends,  the  memory  at 
once  reverts  to  Emerson,  as  the  first  and  most 
illustrious  friend  of  Thoreau's  manhood.  The  in 
fluence  of  that  friendship  and  their  mutual  services 
will  always  be  mooted  subjects.  Some  earlier 
critics,  like  Lowell,  or  those  persuaded  by  his  words, 
regarded  Thoreau  as  Emerson's  progeny, — "  a  pis 
tillate  plant "  of  his  pruning.  Others,  with  strained 
effect,  explain  the  character  of  Donatello  as  the 
awakening  of  Thoreau's  soul,  under  the  influence  of 
Emerson,  as  witnessed  and  recorded  by  Hawthorne. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  critics,  like  Dr.  Japp, 
who  deplore  the  temporary  influence  of  Emerson 
as  deleterious  to  Thoreau's  true  development  as 
poet.  No  one  can  question  the  stimulative  effect, 
emotionally  and  mentally,  of  Thoreau's  early  friend- 


224        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

ship  with  Emerson  and  residence  in  his  home.  The 
time  is  past,  however,  to  accept  the  theory  that  his 
genius  was  reflected  light  from  Emerson  or  that 
his  fame  has  been  due  to  the  association  of  the  two 
names. 

By  those  who  would  thus  regard  Thoreau  as 
imitator  of  Emerson,  much  stress  was  laid  upon 
the  resemblances  in  manner  and  voice,  and  this 
was  construed  as  conscious  or  unconscious  expres 
sion  of  the  dominant  influence  of  Emerson  upon 
his  younger  friend.  The  words  of  Rev.  David 
Haskins,  a  college  classmate  of  Thoreau  and  a 
cousin  of  Emerson,  have  been  widely  quoted; — 
"Not  long  after  I  happened  to  meet  Thoreau  in 
Mr.  Emerson's  study  at  Concord — the  first  time 
we  had  come  together  since  leaving  college.  I 
was  quite  startled  by  the  transformation  that  had 
taken  place  in  him.  His  short  figure  and  general 
cast  of  countenance  were  of  course  unchanged ; 
but  in  his  manners,  in  the  tones  of  his  voice,  in 
his  mode  of  expression,  even  in  the  hesitations  and 
pauses  of  his  speech,  he  had  become  the  counter 
part  of  Mr.  Emerson."  Though  such  statement  is 
extreme,  according  to  the  testimony  of  many  Con 
cord  friends,  there  did  exist  strange  resemblances 
of  manner  as  well  as  of  mind,  but  they  were  largely 
coincidal.  To  both,  nature  had  given  musical,  mel- 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        225 

low  voices,  and  these  had  been  further  likened  by 
the  subtle  effect  of  companionship.  A  Concord 
friend  of  both  Emerson  and  Thoreau  recently  said 
to  me,—"  One  might  as  well  assert  that  Thoreau's 
nose  was  an  imitation  of  Emerson's,"  for  both  had 
the  aquiline  Roman  features.  Unconsciously,  Tho 
reau  confided  to  his  journal  an  incident  which 
throws  light  upon  this  resemblance,  a  passage  that 
has  not  been  quoted  in  this  connection.  In  the 
brief  account  of  his  part,  in  1859,  in  speeding  one 
of  John  Brown's  accomplices  from  Concord  to 
Canada,  while  they  were  driving  to  Acton  for  a 
train,  he  recounts  the  fugitive's  urgent  request  to 
find  Emerson,  that  he  might  discuss  some  plans 
with  him.  So  eager  was  the  fanatic  to  gain  his 
end  that  he  once  jumped  from  the  carriage  but  was 
speedily  reinstated  by  Thoreau  who  drove  quickly 
forward.  Recognizing  that  the  man  was  partly 
insane,  Thoreau  records,  "  At  length  when  I  made 
a  certain  remark,  he  said,  '  I  don't  know  but  you 
are  Mr.  Emerson ;  are  you  ?  You  look  somewhat 
like  him.'  .  .  .  He  said  this  as  much  as  two  or 
three  times."  ( "  Autumn,"  pp.  381-2.)  Thus,  in 
later  as  in  earlier  years,  the  similarity  of  features 
was  noticed,  and  the  coincidences  of  thought  have 
been  themes  for  wonder,  from  their  discovery  by 
Helen  Thoreau  to  the  present  day. 


226        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

Clearly,  Emerson  at  no  time  regarded  Thoreau 
as  his  imitator  or  unconscious  reflector.  He  always 
emphasized  the  peculiar  and  original  ability  of  his 
friend.  If  the  maturity  of  Thoreau's  life  brought 
disappointment  to  Emerson,  it  never  changed  his 
belief  in  the  possibilities  of  mind  and  literary 
power  in  the  younger  man.  When  at  the  request 
of  Sophia  Thoreau,  Emerson  read  her  brother's 
journals,  the  year  after  the  death  of  their  owner,  he 
recorded,  not  in  generous  adulation,  but  in  his  own 
private  journal,  the  words  on  Thoreau ; — "  In  read 
ing  him,  I  find  the  same  thoughts,  the  same  spirit 
that  is  in  me,  but  he  takes  a  step  beyond,  and  illus 
trates  by  excellent  images  that  which  I  should  have 
conveyed  in  a  sleepy  generalization.  'Tis  as  if  I 
went  into  a  gymnasium  and  saw  youths  leap,  and 
climb,  and  swing,  with  a  force  unapproachable, 
though  their  feats  were  only  continuations  of  my 
initial  grapplings  and  jumps."  Here  is  hint  of  the 
similitude  and  difference  in  the  two  minds,  born 
and  trained  under  the  same  intellectual  influences. 
Emerson's  trend  was  towards  generic,  soul-uplift 
ing  thoughts ;  Thoreau's  towards  the  specific  and 
illustrative,  yet  no  less  lofty. 

A  critic  has  said  that  during  Thoreau's  later  life 
his  relations  with  Emerson  became  "Roman  and 
austere."  These  are  extreme  terms  to  apply  to  a 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        227 

friendship  which  never  lost  the  bases  of  mutual  re 
spect  and  love  but  which  suffered  certain  strains  of 
difference  in  opinion,  as  the  years  passed.  Emerson 
was  deeply,  vitally  interested  in  Thoreau's  future 
and  anticipated  great  results  for  him  and  the  world. 
Writing  to  a  friend  of  Carlyle's  expected  visit  to 
America  about  1840,  Emerson  mentioned  that  he 
should  introduce  Thoreau  as  "  the  man  of  Concord." 
Eecognizing  the  masterly  powers  of  intellect  and 
will  in  Thoreau,  his  friend  prophesied  for  him 
leadership  in  literary  and  state  affairs.  In  this 
forecast  he  had  failed  to  give  sufficient  weight  to 
certain  marked  limitations  and  unswerving  tenets 
in  Thoreau's  character.  Emerson  possessed  a  re 
markable  poise  and  serene  wisdom.  He  was  victim 
of  no  impulses  and  intense  passions.  In  philo 
sophical  and  practical  ideas  alike,  he  was  fore- 
sighted  and  calm.  He  never  allowed  his  devotion 
to  principle  and  reform  to  commit  him  to  words 
or  acts  of  extreme  radicalism.  When  he  left  the 
church  over  which  he  ministered,  because  he  could 
not  accept  the  need  of  the  eucharist,  he  made  no 
bombastic  scene.  In  his  essays  he  uttered  some 
startling  and  misty  iconoclasms  of  thought  and 
aim,  but  when  he  read  these  words  or  discussed 
his  principles,  he  was  always  controlled,  always 
tolerant  of  the  views  of  others.  In  brief,  he  always 


228        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

exercised  a  wise,  gracious  caution  and  patience, 
qualities  which,  added  to  the  paramount  influence 
of  his  presence.  Full  of  the  desire  for  reform  of 
individual  life  and  general  society,  until  the  critical 
decade  of  the  wide-spread  anti-slavery  movement, 
he  never  lent  his  name  nor  influence  to  any  rabid 
or  extreme  methods.  He  could  not  understand 
that  intense  devotion  to  ideas  of  abstract  govern 
ment  which  brought  Thoreau  to  jail  for  non-pay 
ment  of  taxes.  He  regretted,  also,  the  tenacious 
refusal  of  his  friend  to  accept  opportunities  for 
travel  and  progression  in  worldly  ways.  As  he 
once  hinted,  it  was  a  grief  to  him  that  a  man, 
fitted  to  be  a  leader  of  men  in  thought  and  action, 
should  be  content  to  become  merely  "  a  leader  of 
huckle-berry  parties  of  young  people."  In  the 
Concord  circle  of  his  day,  and  in  the  wider  world 
of  public  opinion  since,  Emerson,  with  his  balanced 
judgment,  his  broad  and  cautious  respect  for  cus 
tom  and  affairs  of  state,  his  serene  yet  no  less 
magnetic  aspirations  for  a  gradual,  sure  adjust 
ment  of  conditions  that  would  effect  a  more  simple, 
sincere  civilization,  has  gained  greater  honor  than 
his  more  radical  pupil-friend,  Thoreau.  The  latter, 
as  Emerson  recognized  in  his  comments  on  the 
journal  already  quoted,  carried  to  extreme  issues 
many  of  the  seething,  perplexing  ideals  of  the  day, 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        229 

though   saved  from  association  with  the  radical 
communities  by  his  individualism. 

As  life  advanced,  the  divergencies  in  mind  be 
tween  Emerson  and  Thoreau  became  more  marked 
because  of  their  temperamental  traits.  Nature  had 
given  to  Emerson  adroitness  and  keenness,  molli 
fied  by  calm,  kindly  judgment.  Thoreau,  on  the 
contrary,  despite  his  attained  serenity  of  soul,  was 
sometimes  moved  by  wrong  and  injustice  to  Car- 
lylean  indignation.  While  always  courteous  in  its 
highest  sense,  Thoreau's  mental  attitude  was,  at 
times,  combative  and  irascible.  To  Emerson's  sunny 
soul,  he  seemed,  occasionally,  "  with  difficulty, 
sweet."  His  wit  was  sometimes  acrid  in  argu 
ments,  while  his  reserve  and  refusal  to  explain  led, 
to  many  transitory  misunderstandings.  If  the 
relations  between  Emerson  and  Thoreau  in  later 
life  were  less  intimate,  they  were  no  less  friendly. 
Both  formed  other  acquaintances  with  whom  af 
finity  and  propinquity  fostered  greater  intimacy. 
Thoreau  was  conscious  of  Emerson's  disappoint 
ment  and  criticism,  he  felt  both  keenly,  though  he 
gave  no  specific  expression,  but  he  became  more  re 
served  outwardly  to  hide  the  inward  sensitiveness. 
Moreover,  reserve  was  not  the  exclusive  attribute 
of  Thoreau.  Many  of  Emerson's  friends  com 
plained  of  inability  to  reach  his  inner  self.  In 


230        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

answer  to  such  a  charge  from  Margaret  Fuller, 
Emerson  acknowledged  such  barriers  to  any  inti 
macy  between  himself  and  others  and  called  himself 
"an  unrelated  person."  Henry  James,  Senior, 
openly  declared  that  he  could  not  probe  the  misty, 
calm  reserve  of  Emerson,  "  who  kept  one  at  such 
arm's  length,  tasting  him  and  sipping  him  and  try 
ing  him." 

It  is  not  strange  that  Emerson  truly  believed 
that  Thoreau's  desire  was  to  become  a  stoic.  He 
did  not  know,  until  after  Thoreau's  death,  many  of 
the  dormant,  submerged  evidences  of  tender  heart- 
love.  His  funeral  address,  so  widely  read  and 
quoted,  revealed  his  deep  admiration  for  his  friend, 
but  it  also  showed  that,  doubtless  unwittingly,  he 
had  lost  sight  of  some  of  the  nobler  and  gentler 
qualities  of  Thoreau's  nature.  In  a  reminiscent 
sketch  by  Mrs.  Kebecca  Harding  Davis,  entitled 
"A  Little  Gossip,"  in  Scribner's  Magazine  for 
November,  1900,  she  emphasizes  Emerson's  delight 
in  the  study  of  men  and  women,  as  a  scientist 
would  study  specimens.  This  acute  probing  ex 
tended  even  to  his  friends  and,  as  the  years  caused 
lapse  of  full  memory,  occasioned  some  comments  of 
seeming  disloyalty.  To  Mrs.  Davis,  a  few  years 
after  Thoreau's  death,  he  said ; — "  Henry  often 
reminded  me  of  an  animal  in  human  form.  He  had 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        231 

the  eye  of  a  bird,  the  scent  of  a  dog,  the  most 
acute,  delicate  intelligence.  But  no  soul.  No, 
Henry  could  not  have  had  a  human  soul."  While 
Emerson,  in  his  inner  truth,  did  not  mean  this 
analysis  as  it  may  sound  to  a  casual  reader,  one 
cannot  refrain  from  regret  that  such  a  half-truth 
should  have  been  uttered  and  printed.  Would 
Thoreau  ever  have  said  such  enigmatical  words  of  a 
friend  ?  Such  extreme  and  unexplained  criticisms, 
sometimes  uttered  during  Thoreau's  life,  must  have 
caused  deep  grief  to  his  proud,  sensitive  heart.  His 
own  published  journal-extracts  and  letters,  and  the 
testimony  of  his  sister  and  many  friends,  have  fully 
established  the  warmth  and  constancy  of  the  con 
trolled  emotional  and  spiritual  qualities.  Dr. 
Edward  Emerson  has  well  summarized  this  rela 
tionship  between  his  father  and  Thoreau; — "In 
spite  of  these  barriers  of  temperament,  my  father 
always  held  him,  as  a  man,  in  the  highest  honor." 

Thoreau's  kindly  humanity  and  his  rare  fitness  as 
companion  were  fully  recognized  by  the  Emerson 
household  during  his  residence  there.  If  the 
gentler  traits  were  sometimes  hidden  from  Emer 
son,  they  were  revealed  to  Mrs.  Emerson  and  the 
children,  who  have  given  the  world  loving  mem 
ories  of  this  household  friend^  In  the  "  Familiar 
Letters"  Mr.  Sanborn  has  shown  the  tender,  en- 


232        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

nobling  influence  which  Mrs.  Emerson  exerted  upon 
Thoreau.  One  must  also  recognize  her  reciprocal 
regard  and  respect.  This  woman,  who  has  been 
well  described  as  "  grace  personified,"  in  whom  her 
husband  found  true  embodiment  of  all  Christianity, 
educed  the  finer  and  nobler  qualities  of  Thoreau's 
heart  and  soul.  In  deep  earnestness,  which  escaped 
all  reserve,  he  wrote  to  her  from  Staten  Island  ; — 
"The  thought  of  you  will  constantly  elevate  my 
life  ;  it  will  be  something  always  above  the  horizon 
to  behold,  as  when  I  look  up  at  the  evening  star." 
With  Mrs.  Emerson,  Thoreau  discussed  poetry  and 
philosophy ;  he  was  elevated  to  his  loftiest  mental 
ascents,  and  again  wrote, — "  I  feel  taxed  not  to 
disappoint  your  expectation."  In  practical  ways  he 
was  ever  ready  to  aid  her  artistic  efforts  at  garden 
ing,  and  he  alludes  with  gentle  humor  to  this  pro 
fession  of  his  hostess-friend. 

After  noting  the  gentle  inspiring  influences  of 
the  Emerson  home  and  child-life  there  upon  Tho 
reau,  one  can  readily  believe  that  had  the  love  of  a 
husband  and  father  come  into  his  life,  during  these 
formative  years,  his  emotional  nature  would  have 
shown  greater  expansion  and  less  constraint. 
Doubtless,  there  might  have  resulted  a  loss  of  men 
tal  independence  and  exclusive  devotion  to  nature 
and  poetry.  For  children,  he  had  to  the  end  of  his 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        233 

life  the  deepest  affection.  He  was  justly  popular 
with  them  as  teacher  and  story-teller.  An  inci 
dent  which  showed  his  tactful  method  of  instruc 
tion,  is  recalled  by  one  of  the  town  children,  who 
was  often  a  member  of  his  huckleberry-parties. 
When  some  child,  in  climbing  a  fence  or  scaling  a 
wall,  fell  and  lost  his  berries,  Thoreau  tenderly  sup 
plied  the  fruit  from  his  own  pail  and  then  explained 
to  the  little  ones  how  fortunate  the  mishap  really 
was,  since  thus  must  seed  be  supplied  for  future 
berries.  Among  all  Concord  children,  the  girls 
and  boy  of  the  Emerson  home  retained  his  deep 
love  to  the  close  of  life.  He  would  tell  them 
stories,  replete  with  fancy  and  fact  from  natural 
history,  he  would  organize  and  lead  their  excur 
sions,  or  would  champion  their  childish  causes.  He 
writes,  with  loving  pride,  that  young  Edward 
"  asked  me  the  other  day,  '  Mr.  Thoreau,  will  you 
be  my  father  ? '  I  am  occasionally  Mr.  Eough-and- 
Tumble  with  him  that  I  may  not  miss  him,  lest  he 
should  miss  you  too  much."  Again,  to  the  absent 
father,  he  writes :  "  Ellen  and  I  have  a  good  under 
standing.  I  appreciate  her  genuineness.  Edith  tells 
me  after  her  fashion, — '  By  and  by  I  shall  grow  up 
and  be  a  woman,  and  then  I  shall  remember  how 
you  exercised  me.'  "  ("  Familiar  Letters,"  p.  162.) 
Thoreau's  friendship  with  the  Emerson  family 


234        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

was  ever  a  tender  memory  to  him.  When  he  left 
that  home  he  wrote  the  poem,  "  The  Departure," 
not  printed  until  many  years  later,  but  expressing 

his  gratitude  in  earnest,  gracious  words  : — 
»*»«*.* 

11  This  true  people  took  the  stranger, 
And  warm-hearted  housed  the  ranger  ; 
They  received  their  roving  guest, 
And  have  fed  him  with  the  best ; 

"  Whatsoe'er  the  land  afforded 
To  the  stranger's  wish  accorded, — 
Shook  the  olive,  stripped  the  vine, 
And  expressed  the  strengthening  wine. 
*•****# 

"  And  still  he  stayed  from  day  to  day, 
If  he  their  kindness  might  repay  ; 
But  more  and  more 
The  sullen  waves  came  rolling  towards  the  shore. 

"  And  still,  the  more  the  stranger  waited, 
The  less  his  argosy  was  freighted  ; 
And  still  the  more  he  stayed, 
The  less  his  debt  was  paid." 

Outside  the  Emerson  household,  perhaps  rather 
closely  related  to  it,  was  the  first  Concord  friend  to 
recognize  the  genius  of  Thoreau,  anterior  and  pre 
paratory  to  his  acquaintance  with  Emerson.  Mrs. 
Lucy  Brown  of  Plymouth,  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Emer 
son,  who  spent  a  large  part  of  her  years  in  Concord, 
was  the  caller  to  whom  Helen  Thoreau  showed  her 
brother's  journal,  with  pride  that  it  contained  sen 
tences  like  those  of  Emerson.  As  recorded,  Mrs. 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        235 

Brown  borrowed  the  journal  to  show  to  her  brother- 
in-law  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  for  that  famous 
literary  friendship.  For  Mrs.  Brown,  as  for  her 
sister,  Thoreau  felt  that  romantic  and  reverential 
friendship  which  many  a  young  man  of  poetic  mind 
entertains  for  matrons  of  intellect  and  gracious 
character.  Mrs.  Brown  especially  encouraged  Tho- 
reau's  poetic  aspirations.  Into  her  window  he 
threw  the  copy  of  those  early  self -revelatory  lines, 
perchance  his  best  work  in  verse,  "  Sic  Yita,"  be 
ginning,— 

"  I  am  a  parcel  of  vain  strivinga,  tied 
By  a  chance  bond  together." 

With  the  poetry  of  gracious  act  as  well  as  words, 
he  placed  this  scrap  of  verse  about  a  bunch  of  vio 
lets, — a  delicate  and  romantic  deed  for  the  stoic  and 
hermit !  To  her  he  wrote,  ("  Familiar  Letters,"  p. 
44,)  "  Just  now  I  am  in  the  mid-sea  of  verses,  and 
they  actually  rustle  around  me  as  the  leaves  would 
round  the  head  of  Autumnus  himself  should  he 
thrust  it  up  through  some  vales  which  I  know ;  but 
alas !  many  of  them  are  but  crisped  and  yellow  leaves 
like  his,  I  fear,  and  will  deserve  no  better  fate  than 
to  make  mould  for  new  harvests."  During  these 
years  of  young  manhood,  Thoreau  confided  to  this 
friend  his  ideals,  his  dreams,  and  his  rare  delight  in 


236        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

nature.  To  her  also,  he  complained  of  his  unfitness 
for  practical  work ;  again,  in  a  letter  to  her,  already 
mentioned,  he  wrote  one  of  his  very  few  references 
to  the  death  of  his  brother,  John. 

The  names  of  Thoreau  and  Alcott  have  been 
often  linked  as  vague  idealists ;  both  have  also  been 
called  imitators  of  Emerson.  It  was  once  said  of 
Alcott,  with  more  wit  than  justice,  "  Emerson  is  the 
seer, — and  Alcott  the  seer-sucker."  While  Alcott 
and  Thoreau  were  friends,  while  both  were  extreme 
idealists,  while  both  placed  the  soul-nourishment 
far  superior  to  the  body-maintenance,  while  both 
contended  for  reform  from  the  drudgery  and  ex 
travagance  of  society,  they  had  wholly  dissimilar 
natal  traits.  Alcott's  serene,  unanxious  acceptance 
of  practical  perplexities  caused  Thoreau  grave 
speculation ;  the  artistic  and  improvident  nature  of 
Alcott,  always  impractical  and  easily  duped,  was  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  exact,  shrewd,  busy  tempera 
ment  of  Thoreau,  who  was  a  model  of  Yankee  in 
genuity  and  thrift,  no  less  than  type  of  nature-poet 
and  philosopher.  Reference  has  been  made  to  the 
Emerson  garden-study,  designed  by  Alcott  and 
condemned  by  Thoreau  for  its  geometric  and 
mechanical  defects.  Thoreau,  however,  always 
had  a  tender  regard  for  the  mystical,  Platonic 
philosopher,  whose  idea  of  heaven  was  "  a  place 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        237 

where  you  could  have  a  little  conversation."  Writ 
ing  to  Emerson,  Thoreau  said  of  Alcott, — "  When 
I  looked  at  his  gray  hairs,  his  conversation  sounded 
pathetic ;  but  I  looked  again,  and  they  reminded  me 
of  the  gray  dawn."  To  the  end  of  his  life,  Thoreau, 
though  conscious  of  all  his  friend's  defects,  recog 
nized  his  aspirations  and  his  purity  of  character. 
He  found  pleasure  in  walks  and,  when  strength 
failed,  in  long  talks  with  him.  In  turn,  Alcott  had 
a  loyal  love  for  Thoreau  and  a  deep  respect  for  his 
qualities  of  mind  and  poetic  vision.  In  a  letter 
to  Mrs.  Thoreau,  (after  her  son's  death),  now  first 
printed,  Alcott  said, — "We  may  be  sure  of  his 
being  read  and  prized  by  coming  times,  and  the 
place  and  time  pertaining  to  him  shall  be  forever 
the  sweeter  for  his  presence." 

Thoreau  was  a  constant  friend  to  the  Alcott 
family ;  Louisa  mentions  his  name  among  the 
bearers  at  the  funeral  of  her  sister  Beth,  and  other 
memories  by  the  sisters  attest  their  cordial  relations 
with  him  and  his  family.  Among  the  keen  char 
acterizations  of  his  Walden  visitors,  is  the  excellent 
pen  picture  of  Alcott: — "One  of  the  last  of  the 
philosophers, — Connecticut  gave  him  to  the  world, 
— he  peddled  first  her  wares,  afterwards,  as  he 
declares,  his  brains.  These  he  peddles  still,  prompt 
ing  God  and  disgracing  man,  bearing  for  fruit  his 


238        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

brain  only,  like  the  nut  its  kernel.  I  think  that  he 
must  be  the  man  of  the  most  faith  alive.  His 
words  and  attitude  always  suppose  a  better  state  of 
things  than  other  men  are  acquainted  with,  and  he 
will  be  the  last  man  to  be  disappointed  as  the  ages 
revolve.  ...  I  think  that  he  should  keep  a 
caravansary  on  the  world's  highway,  where  phi 
losophers  of  all  nations  might  put  up,  and  on  his 
sign  should  be  printed,  'Entertainment  for  man, 
but  not  for  his  beast.  Enter  ye  that  have  leisure 
and  a  quiet  mind,  who  earnestly  seek  the  right  road. 
A  blue-robed  man,  whose  fittest  roof  is  the  over 
arching  sky  which  reflects  his  serenity.  I  do  not 
see  how  he  can  ever  die;  nature  cannot  spare 
him.' " 

At  one  time  Thoreau  quoted  Alcott  as  saying 
were  he  and  Ellery  Channing  to  live  in  the  same 
house,  they  "would  soon  sit  with  their  backs  to 
each  other."  Both  these  poet-philosophers,  diverse 
in  temperament,  united  in  a  common  devotion  to 
Thoreau,  and,  in  time,  gained  that  mutual  sympathy 
which  ended  in  firm  friendship  for  each  other. 
Channing,  the  last  survivor  of  this  famous  Concord 
group,  passing  away  in  December,  1901,  was,  in 
truth,  "  the  last  leaf  upon  the  tree,"  of  transcen 
dental  poetry.  He  possessed,  to  the  last,  a  strange, 
contradictory  personality  and  a  unique,  neglected 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        239 

genius.  By  his  own  confession  and  the  attestation 
of  all  his  friends,  he  was  a  man  of  sudden,  vacilla 
ting  moods,  with  a  perversity  and  improvidence 
which  often  brought  despair  to  his  own  heart  and 
home-circle.  His  was  a  heritage  of  high  ideals  and 
liberal  intellect  as  his  name,  like  that  of  his  noble 
uncle,  testified.  After  his  college  life  was  ended, 
and  experimental  years  passed  in  various  places, 
including  a  brief  period  in  Illinois  log-cabin  life,  he 
came  to  Concord  in  1843.  A  few  months  younger 
than  Thoreau  he  soon  became  his  constant  comrade 
after  the  death  of  John  Thoreau.  Emerson,  also, 
found  in  Channing  a  stimulative  companion  on 
woodland  walks.  Both  Channing  and  Thoreau, 
in  their  early  poetic  efforts,  incurred  the  exaggerated 
criticism  of  being  mere  imitators  of  Emerson.  In 
"  A  Fable  for  Critics,"  Lowell  has  clearly  sneered 
at  these  two  friends  in  the  lines, — 

" There  comes  .  .  .  (Channing),  for  instance;  to  see  him's  rare 

sport 

Tread  in  Emerson's  tracks  with  legs  painfully  short ; 
*  *  *  *  *  *  # 

"  He  follows  as  close  as  a  stick  to  a  rocket, 
His  fingers  exploring  the  prophet's  each  pocket. 
Fie  !  for  shame,  brother  bard  ;  with  good  fruit  of  your  own, 
Can't  you  let  neighbor  Emerson's  orchards  alone? 
Besides,  'tis  no  use,  you'll  not  find  e'en  a  core, — 
.  .  .  (Thoreau)  has  picked  up  all  the  windfalls  before." 

Thoreau  seems  to  have  educed  the  lovable,  com- 


240        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

panionable  qualities  of  this  moody  poet,  though  he 
was  keenly  conscious  of  his  peculiarities.  Professor 
Russell,  who  recalls  Channing  on  an  occasion  of  a 
visit  to  Concord  and  an  evening  at  the  Old  Manse, 
has  spoken  of  the  gracious,  inspiring  companion 
that  he  found  in  him,  on  their  return  walk  to  the 
town.  In  "Walden,"  Thoreau  recounts  the  visits 
of  this  friend,  then  coming  all  the  distance  from 
the  hilltop  of  Ponkawtasset  to  the  little  lodge, 
where  they  enjoyed  hours  of  "boisterous  mirth" 
and  serious  talk  and  made  "many  a  bran  new 
theory  of  life  over  a  thin  dish  of  gruel."  Chan- 
ning's  memorial  verses  and  biography,  no  less 
than  his  poems,  "  The  Wanderer "  and  "  Near 
Home,"  have  been  among  the  most  tender  and 
illuminating  revelations  of  Thoreau's  mind  and 
soul. 

The  world  has  ignored  the  poems  of  Channing, 
though  they  contain  many  rare  thoughts  and 
beautiful  images.  He  carried  to  a  far  greater 
excess  the  philosophic  trend  and  uneven,  independ 
ent  metres,  which  characterize  the  poetry  of  Emer 
son  and  Thoreau,  yet  he  had  deeper  passion  and 
more  absorbing  subjectivity  than  either  of  his 
friends.  In  "  A  Week,"  Thoreau  refers  with  dis 
criminating  sympathy  to  the  earlier  poems  of 
Channing, 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS         241 

"whose  fine  ray, 

Doth  often  shine  on  Concord's  twilight  day, 
Like  those  first  stars,  whose  silver  beams  on  high 
Most  travelers  cannot  at  first  descry, 
But  eyes  that  wont  to  range  the  evening  sky. " 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  Sunday  afternoon 
visits,  at  the  Walden  hut,  of  Edmund  Hosmer, 
"who  donned  a  frock  instead  of  a  professor's 
gown."  This  farmer  of  the  exalted  olden  type,  was 
the  intimate  adviser  of  Emerson  and  Thoreau  on 
matters  of  varied  import  and,  with  him,  their 
relations  were  always  cordial  and  sympathetic.  He 
is  associated,  also,  with  the  Concord  experience  of 
George  William  Curtis.  He  was  a  man  of  strong, 
clear  brain,  keen  judgment,  and  poetic  instincts, 
whose  home  reeked  with  plenty  and  hospitality. 
His  daughters,  in  their  Concord  home,  with  rare 
memorials  and  memories  of  the  days  of  yore,  are 
gracious,  wise  dispensers  of  their  noble  inheritance. 
Emerson's  paper  in  The  Dial  for  July,  1842,  on 
"Agricultural  Survey  in  Massachusetts,"  reflected 
his  conversations  with  Mr.  Hosmer.  In  his  study 
of  Brook  Farm  life,  Mr.  Lindsay  Swift  asserts  that 
Emerson's  decision,  not  to  join  this  community,  was 
due  to  the  sagacious  warnings  of  his  farmer-friend. 
Hawthorne  has,  also,  well  portrayed  Mr.  Hosmer, 
with  "  his  homely  and  self-acquired  wisdom,  a  man 
of  intellectual  and  moral  substance,  a  sturdy  fact,  a 


242         THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

reality,  something  to  be  felt  and  touched,  whose 
ideas  seemed  to  be  dug  out  of  his  mind  as  he  digs 
potatoes,  beets,  carrots,  turnips,  out  of  the  ground." 
It  required  no  strained  imagination  to  realize  the 
delight  which  Thoreau  ever  found  in  the  compan 
ionship  of  such  an  invigorating  presence,  a  modern 
Cato  or  Yarro. 

Among  the  widely  quoted  thoughts  of  one  of 
Thoreau's  biographers  is  the  statement  that  Chan- 
ning,  in  a  measure,  was  the  interpreter  between 
Hawthorne  and  Thoreau.  While  both  the  naturalist 
and  the  romancer  found  a  companion  in  Channing, 
there  is  much  evidence,  both  in  Hawthorne's  note 
books  and  in  the  letters  of  Thoreau,  that,  from  the  first 
appearance  of  Hawthorne  at  Concord,  there  existed 
a  warm  sympathy  between  himself  and  the  poet- 
naturalist.  Thoreau  was  among  the  few  guests  at 
table  at  the  Old  Manse ;  together  they  listened 
to  the  music-box,  sailed  upon  the  river,  or  sauntered 
along  the  wood-paths.  For  Thoreau,  Hawthorne 
had  deep  regard  both  as  nature-poet  and  "as  a 
wholesome  and  healthy  man  to  know."  The 
famous  little  boat,  in  which  the  brothers  had 
journeyed  along  the  Concord  and  Merrimack,  be 
came  the  property  of  the  romancer,  was  rechristened 
"The  Water-Lily,"  and  constantly  reminded  its 
owner  of  the  marvelous  skill  of  Thoreau  with  the 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        243 

paddle  and  the  oar.  When  Thoreau  went  to  Staten 
Island,  Hawthorne  saw  the  wisdom  of  the  change 
for  physical  reasons,  but  added  the  regret, — "  On 
my  own  account  I  should  like  to  have  him  remain 
here,  he  being  one  of  the  few  persons,  I  think,  with 
whom  to  hold  intercourse  is  like  hearing  the  wind 
among  the  boughs  of  a  forest  tree ;  and,  with  all 
this  wild  freedom,  there  is  a  high  and  classic  culti 
vation  in  him  too."  Of  the  review  of  a  series  of 
papers  which  Thoreau  contributed  to  The  Dial, 
Hawthorne  wrote  in  his  note-book, — "Methinks 
this  article  gives  a  very  fair  image  of  his  mind  and 
character, — so  true,  innate  and  literal  in  observa 
tion,  yet  giving  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of 
what  he  sees,  even  as  a  lake  reflects  its  wooded 
banks,  showing  every  leaf,  yet  giving  the  wild 
beauty  of  the  whole  scene.  .  .  .  There  is  a 
basis  of  good  sense  and  of  moral  truth,  too,  through 
out  the  article,  which,  also,  is  a  reflection  of  his 
character."  Scarcely  did  Thoreau  need  an  inter 
preter  with  a  friend  who  could  thus  understand  and 
illumine  his  mind  and  soul. 

One  cannot  leave  the  Concord  friends  without 
mention  of  Elizabeth  and  Edward  Hoar,  who  rec 
ognized  the  genius  of  Thoreau  and  his  nobleness  of 
character,  while  to  him  they  showed  many  proofs 
of  sincere  friendship.  On  his  departure  for  Staten 


244        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

Island,  Elizabeth  Hoar  gave  him  the  ink-stand  to 
which  his  letters  refer.  In  a  cordial  note,  given 
with  the  remembrance,  she  wrote, — "  and  I  ain  un 
willing  to  let  you  go  away  without  telling  you  that 
I,  among  your  other  friends,  shall  miss  you  much 
and  follow  you  with  remembrance  and  all  the  best 
wishes  and  confidence."  Thoreau  was  deeply  ap 
preciative  of  such  friendship  from  the  noble  woman, 
whom  Emerson  always  regarded  as  sister,  after  the 
death  of  his  brother  Charles  to  whom  she  was  be 
trothed,  and  whose  presence,  says  Emerson,  "  con 
secrates."  Thoreau  mentions  her  with  reverence 
as  "  my  brave  townswoman,  to  be  sung  of  poets." 
Edward  Sherman  Hoar,  her  brother,  was  one  of 
Thoreau's  later  friends  and  contributed  to  him 
many  comforts  during  the  last  months  of  weakness. 
Though  some  years  his  senior,  Thoreau  found  in 
Hoar  a  delightful  comrade  in  mountain  excursion 
and  woodland  tramp,  as  long  as  strength  allowed. 
To  the  kind  thought  of  this  friend,  he  owed  the 
long  drives  which  gave  him  mild  exercise  and  re 
freshing  air,  after  the  body  had  lost  its  pristine 
vigor.  Mr.  Hoar  was,  for  many  years,  a  magistrate 
in  California ;  on  his  return  to  Concord,  he  pre 
ferred  the  quiet  life  of  a  scholar  and  nature-student, 
and  in  Thoreau  he  recognized  a  magician-teacher. 
The  epitaph  of  Mr.  Hoar  accentuates  the  qualities 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        245 

which  made  the  two  men  so  congenial ; — "  He  cared 
nothing  for  the  wealth  or  fame  his  rare  genius 
might  easily  have  won.  But  his  ear  knew  the  songs 
of  all  birds.  His  eye  saw  the  beauty  of  flowers  and 
the  secret  of  their  life.  His  unerring  taste  de 
lighted  in  what  was  best  in  books.  So  his  pure 
and  quiet  days  reaped  their  rich  harvest  of  wisdom 
and  content." 

Outside  other  local  friends,  among  whom  Mr. 
Sanborn  has  exemplified  his  friendship  by  the  bio 
graphical  and  editorial  work  to  which  all  students 
of  Thoreau  are  deeply  indebted,  he  had  a  practical 
adviser  and  business  colleague  in  Horace  Greeley. 
For  Thoreau,  Greeley  arranged  terms  for  articles 
in  Graham's,  Putnam's,  and  other  magazines,  ad 
vanced  him  money  for  literary  uses,  and  tenaciously 
gained  for  him  the  long-deferred  remuneration  from 
editors.  He  was  ever  appreciative  of  the  ability  of 
Thoreau  and  somewhat  shared  the  regret  of  Emer 
son  at  the  non-fulfilment  of  a  wider  literary  fame 
for  his  young  friend.  When  Thoreau  first  called 
upon  Greeley  in  New  York,  he  was  impressed  by 
the  kindly  greeting, — "  now  be  neighborly," — and 
described  this  busy,  erratic  editor  as  "cheerfully 
in  earnest,  a  hearty  New  Hampshire  boy  as  one 
would  wish  to  meet."  ("  Familiar  Letters,"  p.  114.) 

Among  Thoreau's  earlier  friends,  to  become  also 


246        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

his  literary  critic,  was  Margaret  Fuller.  "While 
editor  of  The  Dial,  she  examined, — and  rejected, 
— some  of  his  poems  and  essays.  Appreciating  that 
their  author  was  "healthful,  rare,  of  open  eye, 
ready  hand,  and  noble  scope,"  she  also  saw  in  him 
"a  somewhat  bare  hill,  which  the  warm  gales  of 
spring  have  not  visited."  Her  censure  was  keen, 
and  well  emphasized  the  startling  beauties,  com 
bined  with  the  sternness  and  ruggedness  of  much 
of  Thoreau's  early  writing.  Though  Margaret 
Fuller  was  in  Concord  often  for  many  years,  and  met 
Thoreau  constantly  at  the  homes  of  his  friends,  their 
relations  were  never  very  cordial  on  the  part  of 
Thoreau.  Like  Emerson,  he  appreciated  the  mental 
gifts  of  this  woman,  the  "  new  woman "  type  of 
her  day,  but  her  efforts  to  win  intimate  friendship 
failed  to  gain  response  from  either  author.  The 
"repulsions,"  which  Emerson  records  with  regret 
against  her  personality,  were  shared  by  many  ac 
quaintances  in  both  Concord  and  Boston.  Some  of 
the  sentences  in  "  A  Week  "  are  often  explained  as 
personal  references  to  Margaret  Fuller ; — "  a  restless 
and  intelligent  mind,  interested  in  her  own  culture, 
who  not  a  little  provokes  me,  and,  I  suppose,  is  stim 
ulated  in  turn  by  myself."  After  the  tragic  ship 
wreck  and  drowning  of  Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli,  with 
her  husband  and  son,  Thoreau  was  one  of  the  first 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        247 

family  friends  to  hasten  to  the  coast  off  Fire  Island, 
to  give  service  and  care  to  her  mother  and  brother. 
The  latter,  Eichard  Fuller,  was  a  valued  comrade 
of  Thoreau  on  many  excursions,  and  to  him  he 
owed  his  treasured  music-box. 

In  Thoreau's  later  life  he  carried  on  an  extended 
revelatory  correspondence  with  two  men  of  poetic 
and  meditative  minds,  who  justly  deserve  rank 
among  his  most  devoted  and  appreciative  friends. 
One  of  these  was  Mr.  Daniel  Eicketson  of  New 
Bedford.  The  acquaintance  began  in  1854,  as  a  re 
sult  of  the  purchase  of  a  copy  of  "  Walden."  The 
letters  continued  until  Thoreau's  death,  with  fre 
quent  interchange  of  visits ;  in  truth,  Mr.  Eicketson 
remained  a  cordial  friend  to  the  family  after  Tho 
reau's  death.  His  many  letters  to  Miss  Sophia 
Thoreau,  which  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  read, 
reveal  a  character  of  rare  insight  and  religious 
beauty.  He  was  a  poet-botanist  and  had  built, 
and  occupied  for  hours  daily,  a  "  shanty "  near 
his  beautiful  home  in  New  Bedford.  Thoreau,  who 
was  much  interested  in  the  flora  of  this  region  and 
in  the  marine  plants  of  Nantucket,  often  visited 
this  friend  from  1854  until  1861.  As  mentioned,  it 
was  on  the  last  visit  that  the  ambrotype  was  taken 
from  which  the  Eicketson  medallion  was  made. 
It  was  this  friend  who  described  the  first  sight 


248        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

of  Thoreau,  as  he  approached  his  home  unexpect 
edly,  with  "  a  portmanteau  in  one  hand  and  an  um 
brella  in  the  other,"  looking  "  like  a  peddlar  of 
small  wares."  To  offset  any  suspicion  of  reproach 
for  this  initial  vision,  however,  Mr.  Kicketson  al 
ways  testified  to  the  courtesy  and  fine-breeding  of 
Thoreau  as  host  or  guest.  In  one  of  the  letters  to 
Miss  Sophia,  this  friend  gives  a  true  glimpse  of  his 
own  composite  nature,  which  would  so  fully  satisfy 
the  ideals  of  his  philosopher-teacher, — "  Busy  about 
farm-work  but  not  neglectful  of  the  Muses." 

Among  the  letters  from  Mr.  Ricketson  are  two 
written  to  Thoreau  during  his  last  weeks  of  illness. 
In  one  he  chronicles,  with  the  accuracy  of  the 
naturalist  and  the  rapture  of  the  poet,  the  signs 
of  incipient  spring  from  the  wild  geese  and  the 
golden-winged  woodpecker  to  the  robin  and  the 
catkins,  a  surety  that  Thoreau  retained,  to  the  last, 
his  strong  interest  in  nature.  The  second  letter  is 
here  reproduced  entire ;  it  shows  the  warm,  noble 
friendship  and  also  proclaims  the  sure  faith  of  this 
Quaker  poet-naturalist,  a  quality  which  enhanced 
the  affinity  between  the  two  men  : — 

"  THE  SHANTY,  BROOKLAWN, 

"  13th  April,  1862. 
"MY  DEAR  FRIEND: 

"  I  received  a  letter  from  your  dear  sister 
a  few  days  ago  informing  me  of  your  continued 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        249 

illness,  and  prostration  of  physical  strength,  which 
I  was  not  altogether  unprepared  to  learn,  as  our 
valued  friend,  Mr.  Alcott,  who  wrote  me  by  your 
sister's  request  in  February  last,  said  that  you  were 
confined  at  home  and  very  feeble.  I  am  glad  how 
ever  to  learn  from  Sophia  that  you  still  find  com 
fort  and  are  happy,  the  reward  I  have  no  doubt  of 
a  virtuous  life,  and  an  abiding  faith  in  the  wisdom 
and  goodness  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  It  is  un 
doubtedly  wisely  ordained  that  our  present  lives 
should  be  mortal.  Sooner  or  later  we  must  all  close 
our  eyes  for  the  last  time  upon  the  scenes  of  this 
world,  and  oh !  how  happy  are  they  who  feel  the 
assurance  that  the  spirit  shall  survive  the  earthly 
tabernacle  of  clay,  and  pass  on  to  higher  and  hap 
pier  spheres  of  experience. 

"  'It  must  be  so, — Plato,  thou  reasoneth  well : — 
Else  whence  this  pleasing  hope,  this  fond  desire 
This  longing  after  immortality  ? ' 

"ADDISON,— CATO. 

"  'The  soul's  dark  cottage,  battered  and  decayed, 

Lets  in  new  light  through  chinks  that  time  has  made  ; 
Stronger  by  weakness,  wiser  men  become, 
As  they  draw  near  to  their  eternal  home 
Leaving  the  old,  both  worlds  at  once  they  view 
Who  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  the  new.  * 

"WALLER. 

It  has  been  the  lot  of  but  few,  dear  Henry,  to  ex 
tract  so  much  from  life  as  you  have  done.  Al 
though  you  number  fewer  years  than  many  who 
have  lived  wisely  before  you,  yet  I  know  of  no  one, 
either  in  the  past  or  present  times,  who  has  drunk 
so  deeply  from  the  sempiternal  spring  of  truth  and 
knowledge,  or  who  in  the  poetry  and  beauty  of 
e very-day  life  has  enjoyed  more,  or  contributed 
more  to  the  happiness  of  others.  Truly,  you  have 


250        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

not  lived  in  vain,  your  works,  and  above  all,  your 
brave  and  truthful  life,  will  become  a  precious 
treasure  to  those  whose  happiness  it  has  been  to 
have  known  you,  and  who  will  continue,  though 
with  feebler  hands,  the  fresh  and  instructive  philos 
ophy  you  have  taught  them. 

"  But  I  cannot  yet  resign  my  hold  upon  you  here. 
I  will  still  hope,  and  if  my  poor  prayer  to  God  may 
be  heard,  would  ask  that  you  may  be  spared  to  us 
awhile  longer  at  least.  This  is  a  lovely  spring  day 
here,  —  warm  and  mild,  —  the  thermometer  in  the 
shade  at  62°  above  zero  (3  P.  M.).  I  write  with 
my  shanty  door  open  and  my  west  curtain  down 
to  keep  out  the  sun,  —  a  red-winged  blackbird  is 
regaling  me  with  a  querulous,  half-broken  song, 
from  a  neighboring  tree  just  in  front  of  the  house, 
and  the  gentle  wind  is  soughing  through  my 
young  pines.  ...  I  wish  at  least  to  devote 
the  remainder  of  my  life,  whether  longer  or  shorter, 
to  the  cause  of  truth  and  humanity,  —  a  life  of  sim 
plicity  and  humility.  Pardon  me  for  thus  dwelling 
on  myself. 

"  Hoping  to  hear  of  your  more  favorable  symp 
toms,  but  committing  you  (all  unworthy  as  I  am) 
into  the  tender  care  of  the  great  Shepherd,  who 
'tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,' 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  friend  and  counsellor, 
"  Ever  faithfully  yours, 
KICKETSON." 


A  man  of  Thoreau's  courage  of  thought  and  act 
is  sure  to  win  hero-worship  from  young  men  of 
poetic,  responsive  natures.  To  Concord  came  occa 
sional  visitors  from  England,  attracted  by  Emer 
son's  fame.  Such  often  returned  impressed  by  the 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        251 

original  force  of  Thoreau's  mind  and  his  life-ex 
ample.  Among  these  travelers  was  young  Thomas 
Cholmondeley  of  Shropshire,  England,  who  came 
to  Concord  in  1854  and  lodged  with  the  Thoreaus. 
He  was  the  nephew  of  Bishop  Heber,  was  a  pupil 
qf  Arthur  Hugh  Clough  at  Oriel,  and  had  been 
given  letters  by  the  latter  for  Emerson.  He  had 
already  published  a  volume,  "Ultima  Thule,"  de 
scriptive  of  a  visit  to  a  New  Zealand  colony.  With 
Channing  and  Thoreau,  he  made  some  excursions 
to  adjacent  mountains  and,  in  1855,  he  returned  to 
England  to  take  part  in  the  Crimean  War.  The 
correspondence,  during  the  next  few  years,  shows 
his  devotion  to  Thoreau  and  the  strong  influence 
oxerted  by  the  simple,  lofty  ideals  of  the  Concord 
naturalist.  Clearly,  this  youth  won  from  Thoreau 
a  half-promise  to  visit  him  in  England  when  the 
war  was  ended.  For  Thoreau's  library  and  schol 
arly  researches  he  sent  a  gift  of  peculiar  value, — 
fifty-four  large,  expensive  volumes  on  Hindoo  liter 
ature, — many  of  them  rare  in  America.  Thoreau 
was  delighted  with  this  "  nest  of  Indian  books " ; 
in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  he  compared  his  joy  of  pos 
session  to  what  he  might  have  experienced  "  at  the 
birth  of  a  child."  In  return  he  sent  to  Cholmon 
deley  his  own  volumes,  some  of  Emerson's,  and  a 
copy  of  "Leaves  of  Grass,"  which  first  aroused 


252        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

perplexing  question  in  literary  England  over  the 
unique  genius  of  Whitman.  In  November,  1858, 
Cholmondeley  came  again  to  Concord  and  urged 
Thoreau  to  join  him  in  a  trip  south,  but  the  severe 
illness  of  Thoreau's  father  prevented.  His  letters 
disclose  fine  scholarship  in  this  young  Englishman, 
so  soon  to  suffer  tragic  death  abroad ;  he  was  well 
versed  in  past  and  current  science  and  history ;  he 
was  alert  with  the  euphoria  and  hope  of  early 
manhood.  Mr.  Ricketson,  who  met  him  at  Tho 
reau's  home,  mentioned  a  striking  resemblance  to 
George  William  Curtis.  Devoted  to  Thoreau,  he 
imbibed  many  of  his  ideas  on  the  simplification  of 
life.  It  is  related  that  on  his  first  visit  he  came  to 
Concord  with  the  customary  luggage  of  a  rich 
Englishman,  not  omitting  a  valet ;  the  keen,  caus 
tic,  yet  philosophic  comments  of  Thoreau  on  the 
superfluities  of  custom  so  influenced  him  that  on 
his  second  visit  he  was  most  simply  clad  and  un 
burdened  by  paraphernalia. 

A  mystery  long  lurked  about  a  "  Western  corre 
spondent  "  of  Thoreau  during  his  later  years.  He 
has  been  identified  as  Mr.  Calvin  Greene  of  Eo- 
chester,  Michigan.  The  acquaintance  arose,  as  did 
others  of  the  later  friendships,  from  the  books 
which  Thoreau  had  published.  Mr.  Greene  was  an 
ardent  admirer  of  free,  original  thought  and  also  an 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        253 

earnest  student  of  nature.  He  was  much  im 
pressed  by  the  courage  and  lofty  ideals  of  the 
author  of  "Walden,"  which  he  found  and  read  by 
chance.  He  began  and  maintained  an  inspiring 
correspondence  during  the  last  years  of  his  teacher's 
life.  Some  of  the  letters  written  by  Thoreau  to 
this  man  of  secluded,  ennobling  life  have  been 
privately  published  by  Dr.  Jones  of  Ann  Arbor. 

There  was  one  intimate  friend  of  Thoreau's  later 
manhood  who,  after  the  death  of  Miss  Sophia,  be 
came  her  brother's  literary  executor,  Harrison  Gray 
Otis  Blake.  Their  friendship  was  deeply  spiritual, 
perhaps  most  closely  approximating  Thoreau's  ideal, 
— "mysterious  cement  of  the  soul."  In  the  letters 
to  Mr.  Blake,  which  are  included  in  the  collection 
by  Emerson  in  1865  and  also  in  "  Familiar  Letters," 
are  some  of  Thoreau's  most  unreserved  confessions  of 
heart  and  soul.  He  once  wrote  to  this  friend, — "  it 
behooves  me,  if  I  would  reply,  to  speak  out  of  the 
rarest  part  of  myself."  It  has  been  said  that  their 
relation  was  wholly  intellectual  and  impersonal  but 
such  statement  is  unjust.  To  both  men,  the  ideals 
and  soul-problems  outweighed  mere  mundane  mat 
ters,  but  there  was  ever  a  bond  of  warm  heart- 
sympathy  between  them.  Blake  gave  to  Thoreau 
the  devotion  and  rapt  admiration  of  a  pupil-friend. 
Blake,  however,  was  the  elder  by  a  few  months  ;  he 


254        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

had  been  in  Harvard  when  Thoreau  was  there, 
graduating  from  the  Divinity  School  in  1839,  when 
Emerson,  by  his  famous  address,  sent  quivers  of  ap 
prehension  through  Calvinist  creeds.  Mr.  Blake 
became  deeply  interested  in  Emerson  and  adopted 
many  of  his  theological  tenets.  He  was  himself  a 
preacher  at  Milford,  New  Hampshire,  when  Emer 
son  resigned  his  pastorate  and  received  such  sharp 
censure,  especially  from  Professor  Norton.  Mr. 
Blake,  indignant  at  the  attacks  on  Emerson,  wrote 
a  letter  of  sympathy  and  thus  began  that  earlier 
friendship  which  became  the  medium  of  the  later 
paramount  influence  in  the  life  of  Blake. 

Leaving  the  church  as  a  permanent  profession, 
since  he  refused  to  accept  many  of  its  dogmas,  Mr. 
Blake  taught  school,  first  at  Boston,  in  the  old  Park 
Church,  and  then  came  to  Worcester,  his  native 
city.  Here  he  had  classes  for  many  years.  A  son 
of  Francis  Blake,  a  noted  lawyer,  bearing  the  name 
of  a  famous  ancestor,  Mr.  Blake  was  by  birth  and 
education  a  man  of  matchless  refinement  and 
scholarship.  His  home  was  a  model  of  sincere  dig 
nity  and  hospitality,  as  Thoreau  often  witnessed. 
Thither  he  came  frequently  after  the  acquaintance 
began,  through  the  agency  of  Emerson,  in  1848; 
he  visited,  also,  at  the  home  of  Mr.  Theophilus 
Brown.  As  mentioned,  Thoreau  lectured  often  at 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        255 

the  parlors  of  Mr.  Blake.  Together  they  made 
excursions  to  the  adjacent  hills  and  lakes.  During 
the  last  four  years  of  Mr.  Blake's  life  he  was  a  great 
sufferer.  As  long  as  he  was  able  to  walk,  however, 
he  carried  the  cane  which  had  been  Thoreau's, — a 
plain  stick  of  black  alder  with  the  bark  shaved  away 
on  one  side  and  notched  as  a  two-foot  rule.  This  was 
of  great  service  to  its  later  owner  and  was  valued, 
not  alone  for  its  association,  but  because  it  supplied 
him  with  exact  measurement.  His  trait,  par  ex 
cellence  in  all  things,  like  that  of  his  master,  was 
precision ;  he  never  "  guessed,"  he  always  studied 
the  actual  truth  in  matters  of  physical  as  well  as 
intellectual  moment.  "With  absolute  precision  he 
kept  a  diary,  after  the  type  of  Thoreau's,  with 
abundant  reflections  and  a  few  events.  The  latter 
were  of  little  variety  in  this  quiet,  scholarly  life, 
the  thoughts  were  many  and  varied.  Though 
avoiding  strangers,  he  was  one  of  the  most  com 
panionable  of  friends,  and  was  so  kindly  and  warm 
hearted  that,  even  at  the  age  of  eighty,  he  was 
known  to  his  few  intimates  as  "Harry"  Blake. 
After  the  journals  of  Thoreau  became  his  sacred 
trust,  he  spent  his  days  in  close  study  of  the  nature- 
observations  and  lofty  ideals  of  this  teacher.  To 
his  careful  editing  we  owe  the  volumes, — "  Early 
Spring  in  Massachusetts,"  "  Summer,"  "  Winter," 


256        THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS 

"Autumn,"  and  also  a  volume  of  selected 
"  Thoughts."  To  the  last  week  of  his  life,  when 
the  eye  was  almost  past  reading,  he  applied  his 
mind  to  the  work  which  had  been  his  greatest  in 
spiration  and  blessing. 

One  might  search  long  to  find  two  men  of  such 
moral  fibre  as  were  Thoreau  and  Blake, — for  their 
characteristics  in  this  regard  were  identical.  At 
the  memorial  service  following  the  death  of  Mr. 
Blake  in  1898,  his  friend,  Prof.  E.  Harlow  Eussell, 
to  whom  he  has  committed  the  Thoreau  manu 
scripts,  uttered  this  succinct  sentence, — "He  was 
such  a  man  as  rendered  an  oath  in  a  court  of  justice 
a  superfluity."  Could  more  fitting  word  be  found 
to  express  the  moral  perfection  of  Thoreau  as  well 
as  Blake?  The  latter  lacked  the  physical  vigor 
and  the  vivacious  instincts  of  his  friend;  he  was 
subject  to  moods  of  depression  as  well  as  of  exalta 
tion  ;  he  was  far  more  of  a  philosopher  than  a 
naturalist;  he  had  poetic  ideals  but  lacked  the 
power  of  expressing  them.  Despite  such  minor 
differences  his  qualities  of  mind,  heart,  and  soul 
were  accordant  with  those  of  Thoreau  to  a  degree 
almost  incredible  and  unexampled.  Appropriate 
for  the  epitaph  of  both  was  the  title-line  of  a 
Worcester  newspaper  after  Mr.  Blake's  memorial 
service, — "Devoted  to  Ideals  of  Highest  Type." 


THOREAU  AND  HIS  FRIENDS        257 

Thoreau's  letters  to  this  Worcester  friend  were  of 
unusual  length  and  details  in  matters  of  advice  and 
soul-nutriment.  They  seem  sometimes  nebulous 
and  mystic  in  ideality  ;  again,  they  are  replete  with 
strong  thought  and  practical  suggestion.  The 
sturdiness  of  tone  often  recalls  the  "Ice- water 
tonic"  on  a  sultry  day,  in  which  Alcott  once 
imaged  the  influence  of  Thoreau. 

Every  friend  of  Thoreau,  in  earlier  or  in  later 
life,  felt  the  elevating  influence  of  his  masterly 
mind,  his  rare  vision  of  nature,  his  poetic  concep 
tion  of  nature's  laws  and  growths,  his  brave  inde 
pendence  of  living,  and  his  unswerving  adherence 
to  the  inner  truth  and  spiritual  ideal.  Whether 
incited  to  deeper  thoughts  and  less  regard  for  the 
trivialities  of  life,  inspired  to  a  new  understanding 
of  the  beauties  and  messages  of  birds  and  flowers, 
or  nerved  to  requisite  courage  and  self-reliance  to 
meet  the  perplexities  and  depressions  of  daily  life, 
each  friend  could  repeat  with  Emerson, — 

"The  fountains  of  my  hidden  life 
Are  through  thy  friendship  fair." 


Thoreau  as  Naturalist 


CHAPTER  YHI 

THOKEATJ  AS   NATURALIST 

THE  phrase,  poet-naturalist,  has  been  generally 
accepted  as  Thoreau's  most  pertinent  epithet. 
This  term,  used  by  Channing  as  title  for  the  life  of 
his  friend,  has  been  commonly  accredited  to  his  in 
vention.  In  "Walden,"  however,  one  may  read 
Thoreau's  own  union  of  the  two  phrases, — possibly 
a  suggestion  to  his  biographer.  In  outlining  his 
development  as  naturalist,  Thoreau  applies  these 
progressive  steps  to  the  average  youth  in  his  rela 
tions  with  nature ; — "  He  goes  thither  at  first  as  a 
hunter  and  fisher,  until  at  last,  if  he  has  the  seeds 
of  a  better  life  in  him,  he  distinguishes  his  proper 
objects  as  a  poet  or  a  naturalist  it  may  be,  and 
leaves  the  gun  and  fish-pole  behind."  Thus  did 
Thoreau  transform  himself  from  the  boy-hunter  and 
angler  into  the  student,  poet,  and  philosopher  of 
nature.  His  brother  was  a  skilful  and  enthusiastic 
sportsman.  The  pupil's  journal,  before  cited,  sug 
gests  memories  of  many  expeditions  for  game 
with  "  Mr.  John."  The  two  brothers  often  joined 

small  parties  for  trapping  and  fishing,  for  Henry 

261 


262          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

also  was  very  expert  in  sport.  To  him  had  been 
given  calculating  skill  of  remarkable  exactness,  for 
distance,  number,  speed,  etc.  It  was  related  that 
at  any  time,  if  asked  to  choose  a  dozen  pencils  from 
a  large  bunch,  he  would  grasp  at  once  the  requisite 
number.  "With  gun  and  bait,  also,  he  could  quickly 
surpass  his  companions. 

As  boy  and  man,  however,  Thoreau  had,  in 
marked  degree,  a  poet's  love  for  nature  mingled 
with  the  delicate,  vibrant  fibres  of  a  naturalist,  in 
its  true  meaning  of  a  student-lover  of  outdoor  life, 
not  a  dissector  of  indoor  specimens.  By  inherit 
ance  and  environment,  the  influence  of  Nature,  as 
companion,  was  basal  in  his  life.  He  has  been 
compared  to  Saint  Francis  in  his  affinity  for 
flower  and  bird ;  both  met  sure  response  of  animal 
magnetism  to  their  sympathetic,  loving  comrade 
ship.  Of  Thoreau's  earnest  love  and  reverence  for 
nature's  children,  Mr.  Bradford  Torrey  has  well 
said, — "  Nature  was  not  his  playground  but  his 
study,  his  Bible,  his  closet,  his  means  of  grace." 
So  responsive  was  he  to  the  moods  of  the  woods 
and  skies  that  he  delighted  to  be  called  autochthon 
ous.  Not  alone  did  he  watch  for  the  blossoming 
plants,  the  autumnal  tints,  and  the  first  note  of  the 
hylodes,  but  there  was  a  subtle  revelation  to  him 
beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  eye  or  ear,  however 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          263 

well-trained  they  might  be.  With  delight  at  find 
ing  the  first  specimen  of  ledum  latifolium,  with  its 
dark,  red-purplish  leaves,  he  confesses ;— "  As  usual 
with  the  finding  of  new  plants,  I  had  a  presenti 
ment  that  I  should  find  the  ledum  in  Concord.  It 
is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  the  case  of  the  most  in 
teresting  plants  which  I  have  discovered  in  this 
vicinity,  I  have  anticipated  finding  them  perhaps  a 
year  before  the  discovery."  (Journal,  February  4, 
1858.)  Such  experiences  may  be  the  common  result 
of  acute  intuition,  combined  with  rare  concentra 
tion  of  interest  and  observation,  yet  they  evidence 
none  the  less  this  marvelous  insight  and  responsive 
ness  which  he  had  for  nature-secrets.  To  him,  as 
high-priest,  the  "inner  secret  of  the  universe" 
seemed  about  to  unfold.  Fully  conscious  of  this 
transcendental  insight,  he  wrote, — "The  seasons 
and  all  their  changes  are  in  me."  In  winter  he 
found  a  new  annual  pleasure  in  the  glaze  and  leaf 
crystals,  the  purple  vapor  and  indigo  shadows,  the 
walks  over  frozen  rivers  and  marshes ;  again,  with 
a  poet's  rapture,  he  welcomed  the  first  signs  of 
spring,  in  the  delicate  coloring  of  earth,  the  clear, 
oozing  sap  from  the  maples  and  the  tortoise  moving 
in  the  ditches.  Then  could  he  proclaim, — "  Here  is 
my  Italy,  my  heaven,  my  New  England." 

Essentially  a  scholar  and  an  author  as  he  was, 


264          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

there  were  moods  when  the  classics  failed  to 
satisfy  him,  when  nature  alone  could  bring  happi 
ness.  Every  one  has  such  occasional  cravings; 
Thoreau  was  possessed  by  them  until  they  became 
potent  influences  of  each  day,  perennial  sources  of 
inspiration.  With  this  sentiment  he  wrote  that 
delicate,  whimsical  stanza  in  his  first  volume, 

"  Tell  Shakespeare  to  attend  some  leisure  hour, 

For  now  I've  business  with  this  drop  of  dew, 

And  see  you  not,  the  clouds  prepare  a  shower, — 

I'll  meet  him  shortly  when  the  sky  is  blue." 

Thoreau's  delight  in  the  wild,  in  bogs  and  marshes, 
in  fierce  rains  and  drifting  snows,  was  due,  in  part, 
to  his  indigenous  love  for  all  forms  of  outdoor 
life ;  in  part,  to  his  craving  especially  for  those 
forms  which  ministered  to  his  sturdiness  and  sense 
of  freedom.  On  "  imported  sods "  he  disliked  to 
walk,  since  here  his  thoughts  became  "  heavy  and 
lumpish  as  if  fed  on  turnips  " ;  when  he  could  walk 
on  woodland  path  or  stubbed  pasture  land,  he  felt 
a  tonic,  as  if  he  "  nibbled  ground  nuts." 

There  has  been  a  tendency  to  overestimate  Tho- 
reau's  delight  in  the  uncultivated.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  he  might  have  spent  his  life  happily 
in  the  caves  of  the  aboriginal  settlers.  As  his  re 
tirement  from  "Walden  proved,  he  found  in  seclusion 
in  nature  the  best  opportunities  for  study  and  ex- 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST         265 

pansion,  but  he  did  not  desire  to  relinquish  his 
home  and  friends.  After  return  from  the  Maine 
Woods  he  said  with  distinctness  on  this  point, — 
"  For  a  permanent  residence  it  seemed  to  me  that 
there  could  be  no  comparison  between  this  (Con 
cord)  and  the  wilderness,  necessary  as  the  latter  is 
for  a  resource  and  a  background,  the  raw  material 
of  our  civilization.  The  wilderness  is  simple  almost 
to  barrenness.  The  partially  cultivated  country  it 
is  which  has  inspired  and  will  continue  to  inspire, 
the  strains  of  poets  such  as  compose  the  mass  of 
any  literature."  As  an  expert  gardener,  he  ex- 
ampled  his  pleasure  in  culture  of  the  fields  no  less 
than  of  the  mind.  A  letter  from  his  sister  Helen, 
in  1844,  refers  to  the  practical  and  decorative  work 
of  Henry, — "  He  has  set  out  about  forty  trees  and 
has  made  a  bank  around  the  house  so  we  begin  to 
look  quite  cultivated."  He  always  gave  valuable 
aid  to  his  sisters  in  caring  for  the  garden  and 
house  flowers.  He  never  disdained,  rather  he  urged, 
simple,  artistic  gardening,  but  he  feared  that  excess 
of  cultivation  which  might  supplant  the  natural 
beauty  and  simplicity  of  nature.  Perhaps  he  had 
visions  of  some  of  the  crudities  of  modern  land 
scape  gardening. 

The  reader  is  sometimes  reminded  of  Whitman 
in  Thoreau's  rhapsodies  on  free,  sensuous  nature. 


266          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

There  are  suggestions  of  Whitman's  "The  Sun- 
Bath,"  without  his  expressions  of  crude  animalism, 
in  the  poetic  fancy  in  "A  Week,"  depicting  the 
delight  of  resting  on  a  summer's  day  "up  to  one's 
chin  on  some  retired  swamp,  scenting  the  wild 
honey-suckle  and  bilberry  blows  and  lulled  by  the 
minstrelsy  of  gnats  and  mosquitoes."  To  Thoreau, 
wildness  was  a  stimulant  and  a  panacea  for  village 
life  and  the  distractions  of  society.  Such  doctrine 
is  applied  in  current  life  with  a  full  measure  un 
dreamed  in  his  day.  Fifty  years  ago  a  man  who 
took  walks  in  the  country,  as  a  part  of  his  daily 
life-schedule,  or  a  woman  who  took  her  book  or 
sewing  under  the  trees  or  by  the  pond,  represented 
a  minority  in  the  community  for  whom  their  friends 
assumed  an  apologetic  tone.  Present-day  recrea 
tions,  "  fresh-air  "  excursions,  classes  sauntering  into 
woods  and  fields  for  practical  study,  family  life  and 
domestic  pursuits  transacted  on  the  spacious  piazzas 
of  modern  homes, — such  healthful  signs  of  the  times 
indicate  the  stimulative,  prophetic  force  of  teach 
ings  and  examples  like  those  of  Thoreau  and  his 
few  disciples.  The  modern  world  has  at  last  ac 
cepted  his  emphasis  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
sanity,  no  less  than  the  bodily  vigor,  which  can  be 
gained  only  by  a  free,  constant  comradeship  with 
nature. 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST         267 

It  is  difficult  to  divorce  the  observer  from  the 
poet-philosopher  in  Thoreau's  relations  with  out 
door  life.  In  truth,  the  qualities  are  interdepend 
ent.  Critics  have  attempted  to  prove  that  Tho 
reau's  gifts,  as  naturalist,  were  wholly  emotional 
and  reflective,  that  he  was  "  a  sensitive  feeler  "  but 
a  deficient  observer.  His  own  confessions  offer 
evidence  of  the  keen,  delicate  response  of  both  his 
senses  and  his  soul  to  the  open  and  subtle  phases  of 
nature.  Sights  and  sounds,  however,  thrilled  him 
less  than  the  Tolty  visions  and  ideals  which  they 
symbolized.  "  There  is  a  flower  for  every  mood  of 
the  nund."  The  birds  and  insects  spoke  messages 
of  purity  and  faith  to  his  soul  as  well  as  to  his  ear. 
Through  this  same  sensitiveness  of  emotion  and  feel 
ing,  in  its  literal  meaning,  he  was  attuned  to  all 
external  signs  of  the  weather.  He  was  barometer 
as  well  as  botanist.  He  called  himself  "  The  self- 
appointed  inspector  of  snow-storms  and  rain-storms." 

As  naturalist,  he  was  especially  accurate  and  ex 
haustive  in  description  rather  than  in  classification. 
The  minute  portraiture  of  the  expansion  of  a  pine- 
cone,  or  the  evolution  of  a  moth,  the  gradual  un 
folding  of  a  sunrise  glory  on  a  foggy  morning,  the 
careful  examination  of  nature's  healing  moss  to  re 
place  turf  which  had  been  torn  away, — such  are 
some  of  his  detailed  word-pictures  that  linger  in 


268          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

the  reader's  memory.  He  complained  because  the 
modern  botanist  measured  plants  instead  of  de 
scribing  them,  according  to  the  mode  of  Gerard 
and  the  earlier  naturalists.  In  observations,  and  in 
descriptions  alike,  he  was  ever  more  poet  than 
scientist.  The  plain  sorrel  seemed  to  his  imagina 
tion  like  "  blood  mantling  in  the  cheek  of  the  beau 
tiful  year,"  the  common  stubble  in  winter  became 
glorified  and  visualized  by  the  amber  sunset  light, 
the  glitter  and  joy  of  the  river  bursting  through  the 
ice  symbolized  the  soul  rejoicing  in  its  future.  All 
nature's  movements  seemed  to  him  the  song  of 
love ; — "  The  song  of  the  birds  is  an  epithalamium, 
a  hymeneal.  The  marriage  of  the  flowers  spots  the 
meadows  and  fringes  the  hedges  with  pearls  and 
diamonds.  In  the  deep  water,  in  the  high  air,  in 
woods  and  pastures,  and  the  bowels  of  the  earth, 
this  is  the  employment  and  condition  of  all  things." 
In  observation,  Thoreau's  methods  were  those  of 
a  romancer  with  nature,  her  poet-lover.  He  would 
sit  quietly  for  hours  on  a  tree-trunk  until  the  birds 
would  come  and  join  him ;  he  would  float  idly  in 
his  boat,  and  the  fishes  would  nibble  at  his  fingers 
or  even  rest  on  the  palm  of  his  hand.  His  loftiest 
aim  was  to  "live  as  tenderly  and  gently  as  one 
would  pluck  a  flower."  He  preserved  hundreds  of 
specimens  but  he  was  always  cautious  to  avoid  any 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          269 

bruise  or  blight  to  adjacent  weeds  or  roots.     His 
strong  pantheistic  faith,   no  less  than  his  poetic 
sentiment,  fostered  this  tenderness  for  grasses,  birds 
and  animals.     As  years  passed,  he  became  a  vege 
tarian  in  general  diet,  though  he  was  never  wholly 
ascetic  in  this  regard.     Here  as  elsewhere,  the  poet 
incited  the  human  impulses.     His  chief  objection 
to  animal  food  was  because  of  its  bestial,  coarse 
suggestions ;  "  it  offended  his  imagination."     After 
the  months  at  Walden,  in  close  companionship  with 
bird  and  fish,  he  wrote,—"  I  cannot  fish  without 
failing   a   little  in  self-respect."     In  "The  Maine 
Woods,"  his  memory  lingers  sadly  over  "  the  mur 
der  "  of  the  moose,  and  his  share  in  this  adventure 
affected  the  pleasure  of  his  trip  and  called  forth  a 
confession  that,  for  weeks  after,  his  nature  resented 
this  lapse  into  coarseness.     To  make  his  life  in  ac 
cord  with  nature,  he  must  be  kind  to  all  her  off 
spring.     One  of  his  latest  interviews,  only  a  few 
days  before  his  death,  was  with  a  party  of  boys 
who  had  been  robbing  birds'  nests.     He  touched 
their  deepest  feelings,  even  to  tears,  as  he  described 
the   "wail  of   sorrow   and  anguish"   which  they 
had  caused  to  their  "little  brothers  of  the  air," 
to  borrow  the   poetic   phrase  of  a  later  ornithol 
ogist. 

Mr.  Salt,  in  his  biography  of  Thoreau,  has  dis- 


270          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

tinguished  well  between  his  traits  as  naturalist  and 
as  anatomist.  The  thoughts  of  dissection  were,  in 
the  main,  revolting  to  his  fine-grained,  poetic 
nature ;  moreover,  he  lived  before  the  modern 
methods  of  science  had  demonstrated  the  compara 
tively  brief  suffering  and  the  vast  benefits  from 
careful  vivisection.  When  a  friend  suggested  that 
he  could  best  study  the  structure  of  a  bird  after 
it  had  been  killed,  his  answer  was  characteristic, — 
"  Do  you  think  I  should  shoot  you  if  I  wanted  to 
study  you?"  In  quite  similar  vein,  he  wrote  in 
his  journal,  November  1,  1853,  an  excerpt  included 
in  "  Autumn  " : — "  Can  he  who  slays  the  elephant 
for  his  ivory  be  said  to  have  seen  the  elephant  ? 
No,  these  are  petty  and  accidental  uses.  .  .  . 
Every  creature  is  better  alive  than  dead,  both  men 
and  moose  and  pine-trees,  as  life  is  more  beautiful 
than  death."  The  spy-glass  and  the  flute  were  his 
media  for  allurement  and  for  study.  He  found  music 
a  strong  attraction  to  bird  and  fish,  as  well  as  animal, 
and,  as  he  quietly  played  like  a  modern  Pan,  he 
could  best  watch  and  study  the  form,  movement, 
and  subtle  traits  of  these  friends  of  woods  and 
lakes.  In  his  lecture  on  "Walking,"  he  said,— 
"  The  highest  that  we  can  attain  to  is  not  knowl 
edge,  but  sympathy  with  intelligence."  In  such  a 
statement  how  surely  he  predicted  the  new  doc- 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          271 

trines  of  education  for  this  generation  which  should 
succeed  his  own ! 

Our  southern  poet,  Sidney  Lanier,  personified  the 
clover  and  the  clouds  as  "  cousins  " ;  he  apostrophized 
the  "  tender,  sisterly,  sweetheart  leaves."  So  this 
earlier  nature-poet  of  Concord  emphasized  the  kin 
ship  between  trees,  flowers,  birds  and  men.  Em 
erson  called  Thoreau  "  the  bachelor  of  nature "  ; 
rather  he  was  her  lover.  Recall  that  romantic  per 
sonification  of  the  oak ; — "  I  love  and  could  embrace 
the  shrub  oak.  .  .  .  "What  cousin  of  mine  is  the 
shrub  oak  ?  Rigid  as  iron,  clean  as  the  atmosphere, 
hardy  as  virtue,  innocent  and  sweet  as  a  maiden  is 
the  shrub  oak."  At  Walden,  the  mice  and  the 
squirrels,  the  loons,  the  ants,  the  phoebe  in  his  shed, 
the  robin  in  his  nearest  pine-tree,  became  the  friends 
from  whom  he  learned  many  lessons  and  upon 
whom  he  bestowed  all  honor  and  love.  Even  the 
wasps,  that  settled  on  his  walls,  furnished  him  with 
unique  study,  and  "  did  not  molest  seriously." 

He  found  great  pleasure  in  instructing  children 
regarding  the  proper  attitude,  not  fear  and  wanton 
ness  but  sympathy,  in  their  relations  with  animals 
and  reptiles.  A  boy  who  was  thus  taught  a  valu 
able  lesson  has  recalled,  in  his  late  manhood,  this 
incident.  When  working  at  Barrett's  mill,  the 
boys  were  anxious  to  go  swimming  in  the  pond  but 


272          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

some  of  them,  notably  the  narrator,  were  afraid  of 
water  snakes  and  refused  to  go.  Thoreau,  who 
was  often  a  visitor  at  the  mill,  chanced  to  be 
present  and  noted  the  common  fear.  He  assured 
the  boys  that  the  snakes  would  not  harm  them,  but 
they  still  demurred.  Finally,  he  asked  permission 
to  have  the  water  shut  off,  and  found  a  snake  three 
feet  long ;  he  picked  it  up,  to  the  consternation  of 
his  audience  and,  holding  it  in  his  hand,  showed 
the  boys  that  the  tail  lacked  any  sting,  that  its 
head  was  so  formed  that  it  could  not  bite, — in  fact, 
that  this  type  of  snake  could  do  them  no  possible 
injury. 

With  characteristic  reserve,  he  preferred  to  ex 
ample  rather  than  explain  his  theories  and  discover 
ies.  He  did  not  argue,  but  he  interpreted.  One 
of  the  resident  pupils,  whose  admiration  for  John 
Thoreau,  as  mentioned,  exceeded  his  liking  for 
Henry,  has  related  for  my  use  an  incident  wherein 
Thoreau's  refusal  to  explain  seems  almost  culpable. 
He  had  just  announced,  regarding  common  mani 
festations  in  nature,  that  "  everything  was  a  mira 
cle."  The  boy,  who  had  been  preparing  some  fish 
to  fry  and  had  thrown  their  heads  into  the  gar 
bage,  with  quizzical,  but  natural,  interest,  asked 
Thoreau  if  this  recent  act  was  a  miracle.  He  re 
ceived  "  Yes  "  for  answer  but  was  refused  further 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          273 

explanations.  The  boy  long  remembered  and  re 
sented  the  extreme  and  mysterious  application. 
Perchance,  Thoreau  did  not  think  it  wise  to  perplex 
a  boy  of  eleven  years  with  the  doctrines  of  decay, 
fermentation,  and  fertilization,  though,  as  a  pioneer 
evolutionist,  he  realized  that  these  processes  were, 
in  truth,  miraculous. 

In  recognizing  the  poet-philosopher  in  Thoreau 
one  must  not  underrate  his  rank  and  work  as  nat 
uralist.  While  essentially  the  poet,  girding  himself 
to  be  "  a  hunter  of  the  beautiful,"  he  was,  not  the 
less,  a  practical,  keen  observer  and  recorder  of 
facts.  Unconsciously,  he  uttered  his  own  char 
acterization, — "  Facts  fall  from  the  poetic  observer 
as  ripe  seeds."  Granting  certain  omissions,  his  im 
petus  as  pioneer  American  naturalist  is  now  gen 
erally  acknowledged.  He  overlooked  certain  bo 
tanical  varieties  then  and  now  found  in  Concord ; 
it  must  be  recalled,  however,  that  a  few  of  the 
flora,  whose  omission  in  his  journal  has  sometimes 
been  cited,  have  been  introduced  into  Concord 
within  more  recent  years  by  Mr.  Pratt  and  other 
botanists.  Thoreau  emphasized,  as  if  discovered  by 
himself,  occasional  local  varieties  long  recognized 
by  the  few  naturalists  of  the  region.  They  had 
not,  however,  often  published  their  researches. 
"When  he  speaks  of  the  hibiscus  moscheutos  and  cer- 


274          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

tain  forms  of  the  orchis  and  polygonum,  in  a  tone 
of  pioneer  information,  one  must  recall  that  his  day 
afforded  meagre  facilities  for  classification  and 
identification.  Moreover,  his  pride  was  of  the  kind 
suggested  in  the  first  chapter, — an  idealization  of 
Concord  as  a  centre  of  observation  and  collation. 
After  reading  the  story  of  the  Arctic  discoveries  by 
Kane,  he  caused  a  laugh  among  his  friends  by  as 
serting  that  many  of  the  same  plants  and  forma 
tions  might  be  found  in  the  vicinity  of  his  home ; 
searching  diligently,  he  did  identify  one  or  two  of 
the  northern  flora,  or  their  counterparts,  and  ex 
ulted  in  the  discovery  of  red  snow.  His  descrip 
tions  are  intended  to  glorify  Concord,  not  to  exalt 
himself.  Its  landscape  is  made  beautiful  to  him 
and  his  readers  by  simple  pictures, — the  delicate, 
pale  purple  spikes  of  the  orchis  amid  the  hellebore 
and  ferns  of  the  alder  swamp,  or  the  polygonum 
articulatum  "with  its  slender  dense  racemes  of 
rose-tinted  flowers,  apparently  without  leaves,  ris 
ing  cleanly  out  of  the  sand."  Even  the  common 
shells  on  the  shore  of  river  and  lakes  near  Concord 
are  vested  with  unusual  beauty  in  their  freshly-col 
ored  nacre. 

If  he  lacked  the  penetrative  eye  of  some  modern 
trained  naturalists  who,  through  his  volumes  and 
those  of  later  students,  can  quickly  anticipate  and 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          275 

identify  varieties,  he  became  versed  in  a  score  of 
nature-forms  unknown  before  his  day,  he  laid  the 
foundations  for  study  of  that  exhaustive  botanical 
and  ornithological  region  that  centres  about  Con 
cord.  In  reading  Thoreau's  journals,  as  published, 
one  must  ever  remember  that  he  did  not  accomplish 
his  own  aim,  in  sifting  and  revising  his  notes  for 
press.  Doubtless,  had  he  lived  to  thus  publish  the 
volumes,  he  would  have  greatly  improved  their 
arrangement  and  value,  both  by  additions  and 
eliminations.  In  these  personal  journal-notes,  how 
ever,  compact  and  orderly  even  in  their  incomplete 
ness,  one  realizes  the  immense  amount  of  Thoreau's 
knowledge  and  its  practical  value  to  the  naturalists 
of  these  later  decades.  The  volumes  which  narrate 
excursions  to  the  ocean,  or  the  Maine  woods,  con 
tain  a  few  facts  of  natural  history,  which  are  sug 
gestive  and  indicative  of  his  careful  method  of 
travel,  always  eager  to  note  some  new  fact,  to  dis 
cover  some  significant  trait  in  nature  and  in  hu 
manity,  wherever  he  might  loiter. 

His  service  as  naturalist  is  largely  restricted  to 
an  exhaustive  survey  of  the  soil,  products,  and 
landscape  about  Concord,  with  the  accompanying 
forms  of  insect,  bird,  and  animal  life.  Though  thus 
narrow  in  theme,  his  method  is  remarkable  for  its 
breadth  and  caution,  an  example  to  his  disciples  in 


276          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

whatever  branch  of  science.  He  was  among  the 
first  naturalists  to  study  the  commonplace ;  with 
thoroughness  characteristic  of  all  his  work,  the  usual 
and  the  rare,  the  beautiful  and  the  bastard  growths 
receive  undiscriminating  record.  If  the  water-lily 
and  the  clintonia  borealis  thrilled  him  to  poetic 
terms,  he  gave  no  less  graphic  mention  to  the 
clover,  bluets,  lambkill  and  convolvulus.  He 
watched  the  graceful  swing  of  the  butterfly  but  he 
called  attention  to  the  hidden  grace  of  "  the  yellow- 
winged  grasshopper  with  blackish  eyes."  The 
lark  and  the  robin  were  his  feathered  friends  of 
special  honor  but  he  never  failed  to  note  and  portray 
with  enthusiasm  the  crow,  the  cat-bird,  and  the 
marsh-hawk,  venting  his  "  winged  energy  "  in  "  a 
split  squeal."  In  commenting  on  the  sonorousness 
of  nature's  sounds,  he  examples  most  often  the 
tones  usually  heard  with  indifference, — the  hum  of 
insects,  the  crowing  of  the  cocks,  the  booming  of 
the  ice,  or  the  telegraph  wire  with  a  "  melody  like 
Anacreon  and  Meander."  It  is  significant  that  in 
an  index  of  his  manuscript  journals,  and  in  the 
volumes  edited  by  Mr.  Blake,  there  are  the  greatest 
number  of  references  to  the  dandelions,  chicka 
dees,  turtles,  and  like  common  and  less  poetic  forms 
of  nature. 

While  still  a  young  man  Thoreau  received  recog- 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          277 

nition  as  a  naturalist  of  authority,  when  he  was 
asked  to  write  a  review  for  The  Dial,  in  July,  1842. 
This  pristine  journal  of  nature-facts,  or  embryonic 
science  and  philosophy,  is  about  to  gain  a  new 
interest  among  readers  by  the  republication  in 
available  form  of  its  four  volumes.  In  the  number 
indicated,  the  article  by  Thoreau,  which  has  seemed 
to  escape  the  detailed  attention  of  his  biographers, 
has  a  most  interesting  explanatory  note  by  Emer 
son.  It  offers  proof  of  Thoreau's  wide  knowledge 
of  geology,  botany,  and  bird-craft,  even  in  these 
early  years  of  his  studies.  In  the  preliminary  note, 
the  editor,  whose  personality  as  Mr.  Emerson  is 
quickly  revealed,  explains  the  purpose  of  the  re 
view  and  introduces  its  author  thus  : — "  We  were 
thinking  how  we  might  best  celebrate  the  good 
deed  which  the  State  of  Massachusetts  has  done,  in 
procuring  the  scientific  survey  of  the  Common 
wealth,  whose  result  is  recorded  in  these  volumes, 
when  we  found  a  near  neighbor  and  friend  of 
ours,  dear  also  to  the  Muses,  a  native  and  an  inhab 
itant  of  Concord,  who  readily  undertook  to  give  us 
such  comments  as  he  had  made  on  these  books, 
and,  better  still,  notes  of  his  own  conversation  with 
nature  in  the  woods  and  waters  of  this  town.  With 
all  thankfulness  we  have  begged  our  friend  to  lay 
down  the  oar  and  fishing-line,  which  none  can 


278          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

handle  better,  and  assume  the  pen,  that  Isaak 
Walton  and  White  of  Selborne  might  not  want 
a  successor,  nor  the  fair  meadows  to  which  we 
also  have  owed  a  home  and  the  happiness  of  many 
years,  their  poet." 

The  essay,  unique  and  representative  of  Thoreau's 
style,  reviewed  the  committee's  reports  on  fishes, 
birds,  insects,  plants,  etc.,  with  keen,  discriminating 
judgment.  The  paper  differed  wholly  from  any 
ordinary  criticism  on  scientific  themes,  as  all  of 
Thoreau's  work  differed  from  that  of  the  ordinary 
author.  Many  reflective  and  metrical  comments 
were  interspersed,  some  of  them  used  later  in  his 
first  book,  others  forming  the  nucleus  for  later 
poems.  The  memory  of  winter  hours,  brightened 
by  visions  of  summer  fields,  contains  certain  stanzas 
suggestive  of  his  later  poem  on  Musketaquid.  Not 
alone  are  the  poetic  passages  identified  at  once  as 
Thoreau's  work,  but  the  prose  as  well  bears  his 
literary  signet.  Especially  characteristic  are  the 
sentences  on  nature  versus  society ;  in  them  are 
the  germs  of  later,  more  expulsive  thoughts ; — "  In 
society  you  will  not  find  health,  but  in  nature. 
Society  is  always  diseased  and  the  best  is  the  most 
so.  There  is  no  scent  in  it  so  wholesome  as  that  of 
the  pines,  nor  any  fragrance  so  penetrating  and 
restorative  as  the  life-everlasting  in  high  pastures. 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST         279 

Men  tire  me  when  I  am  not  constantly  greeted 
and  refreshed  by  the  flux  of  sparkling  streams." 
Thoreau  expressed  surprise  that  the  veery,  the 
wood-thrush  so  familiar  to  New  England,  was 
"apparently  unknown  by  the  writer  of  this  re 
port."  After  describing  the  bird,  he  added  an  inter 
esting  personal  note.  He  recalled  that  in  his  own 
college  days,  in  Cambridge  he  had  heard  the 
college  yard  ring  with  its  trill.  The  boys  call  it 
'yorrick,'  from  the  sound  of  its  querulous  and 
chiding  note,  as  it  flits  near  the  traveler  through 
the  underwood."  The  stanzas  on  the  vireo,  appear 
ing  in  a  later  edition  of  his  poems,  are  followed  by 
these  graphic  lines  on  the  crow : — 

"Thou  dusky  spirit  of  the  wood, 

Bird  of  an  ancient  brood, 
Flitting  thy  lonely  way, 
A  meteor  in  the  summer's  day 

From  wood  to  wood,  from  hill  to  hill, 

Low  over  forest,  field  and  rill, 
What  would'st  thou  say  ?  " 

Thoreau's  journals  contain  a  rich  mine  of  facts, 
some  portions  yet  unworked ;  they  abound  in  deli 
cate  surmises,  that  have  become  established  facts 
since  his  day,  on  a  variety  of  themes.  He  was  not 
alone  botanist,  nor  yet  ornithologist ;  he  was  con 
versant,  as  well,  with  many  phenomena  of  zoology, 
woodcraft,  piscatorial  and  nautical  details.  While 


280          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

essentially  the  poet-naturalist  of  Concord,  he  has 
revealed  in  lesser  degree  the  flora  and  fauna,  the 
landscapes  and  the  soils  in  the  wilds  of  Maine,  the 
mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  the  rivers  of  Canada, 
and  the  beaches  of  Staten  Island  and  Cape  Cod. 
He  studied  the  plants  and  grasses  of  Concord,  and, 
in  comparison,  he  tested  and  described  the  red  osier, 
the  hobble-bush,  cornel  and  viburnum  of  the  Maine 
forests  and  made  a  careful  study  of  the  tree-rings, 
fungi,  sedges,  and  the  peculiar  varieties  of  the  gnats 
and  cicindelas.  As  noted,  his  later  excursions  were 
for  the  purpose  of  botanizing.  When  he  went  to 
the  White  Mountains  for  the  last  time,  he  searched 
for  forty-six  varieties  of  plant  and  flower  and 
secured  forty-two  rare  specimens. 

The  detailed  announcement  of  the  arrival,  songs 
and  nesting-habits  of  the  New  England  birds,  the 
close  study  of  the  ants,  tortoise,  muskrats  and  mus 
sels  as  laborers  and  housekeepers,  the  graphic 
scrutiny  of  the  flying  squirrel  and  winged  cat,  the 
minute  description  of  the  first  quivers  of  the  soil  in 
spring  and  the  unfolding  of  willows,  birches,  cow 
slips  and  lobelias, — such  vivid  memories  from  his 
pages  attest  his  service  as  a  wide  and  accurate 
naturalist.  As  sympathetic  observer,  not  as  angler, 
he  has  familiarized  us  with  the  traits  of  the  horned 
pouts,  pickerel,  breams,  "with  their  sculling  mo- 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          281 

tion,"  the  friends  that  he  would  often  stroke  with 
his  hand  from  the  side  of  his  boat.  Familiar  though 
they  may  be  in  part,  possibly  written  for  an  imag 
inary  naturalist  before  the  friendship  with  Tho- 
reau,  yet  no  words  are  so  strong,  in  sympathetic 
description  of  Thoreau,  as  Emerson's  passage  in 
"  Woodnotes,"  beginning : — 

"And  such  I  knew  a  forest  seer, 
A  minstrel  of  the  natural  year, 
Foreteller  of  the  vernal  ides, 
Wise  harbinger  of  spheres  and  tides, 
A  true  lover  who  knew  by  heart 
Each  joy  the  mountain  dales  impart ; 
It  seemed  that  nature  could  not  raise 
A  plant  in  any  secret  place, 
In  quaking  bog,  on  snowy  hill, 
Beneath  the  grass  that  shades  the  rill, 
Under  the  snow,  between  the  rocks, 
In  damp  fields  known  to  bird  and  fox, 
But  he  would  come  in  the  very  hour 
It  opened  in  its  virgin  bower, 
As  if  a  sunbeam  showed  the  place, 
And  tell  its  long  descended  race. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  breezes  brought  him 
It  seemed  as  if  the  sparrows  taught  him 
As  if  by  secret  sight  he  knew 
Where,  in  far  fields  the  orchis  grew. 
Many  haps  fall  in  the  field 
Seldom  seen  by  wishful  eyes  ; 
But  all  her  shows  did  nature  yield, 
To  please  and  win  this  pilgrim  wise. 
He  saw  the  partridge  drum  in  the  woods  ; 
He  heard  the  woodcock's  evening  hymn  ; 
He  found  the  tawny  thrushes'  broods  ; 
And  the  shy  hawk  did  wait  for  him  ; 


282          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

What  others  did  at  distance  hear, 
And  guessed  within  the  thicket's  gloom, 
Was  shown  to  this  philosopher, 
And  at  his  bidding  seemed  to  come." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  fully  his  townsmen 
appreciate  his  calendar  of  the  seasons  and  his 
"  police  patrol "  over  Concord  woods  and  meadows. 
In  some  local  newspapers,  dated  years  after  Tho- 
reau's  death,  I  found  several  references  to  his  data 
for  that  particular  week  or  month,  the  appearance 
of  flower  or  changing  tint  of  sky.  The  brief 
notice,—"  Thoreau  says,  '  About  this  time  expect,' " 
etc.,  recalls  the  mysterious  predictions  of  the  old- 
time  almanacs.  This  latter-day  almanac-compiler, 
however,  was  definite  and  unfailing.  Mr.  Moncure 
Conway  has  exampled  the  surety  of  nature-proph 
ecy  from  Thoreau's  words.  When  the  latter  told 
Mr.  Conway  that  the  hibiscus  "  would  open  about 
Monday  and  not  stay  long,"  the  visitor  to  Concord 
scarcely  accepted  the  information  as  literal  so  he 
delayed  until  Tuesday  afternoon  before  making  his 
search  ;  he  found  that  he  was  "  a  day  too  late,— the 
petals  lay  on  the  ground." 

The  correspondence  between  Thoreau  at  Walden 
and  Mr.  Cabot,  the  secretary  of  Agassiz,  is  included 
in  the  "  Familiar  Letters  "  and  shows  the  grateful 
and  respectful  attitude  of  these  Boston  scientists 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST         283 

towards  Thoreau.  The  latter,  with  the  responsive 
ness  of  a  true  scholar,  exchanged  his  specimens  of 
fishes, — pouts,  minnow,  dace, — for  certain  detailed 
questions  which  he  calls  with  apology, — "imper 
tinent  and  unscientific,"  regarding  the  color,  shape, 
etc.,  of  other  fish.  He  showed  wide  familiarity  with 
authorities  on  piscatorial  matters.  Mr.  Cabot  em 
phasized  the  delight  which  Agassiz  took  in  the 
fresh,  varied  specimens  sent  by  Thoreau.  Agassiz 
visited  Concord  later  and  enjoyed  long  talks  with 
Thoreau,  for  whom  he  always  had  deep  regard. 
The  residence  of  this  great  scientist  in  Boston  had 
a  marked  effect  upon  education  in  America.  The 
awakening  of  interest  in  sciences  at  Harvard  was 
fully  appreciated  by  Thoreau  who  wrote  to  Emer 
son  in  1847,  of  the  new  prospecti  of  study  and  re 
joiced  that  the  college  was  at  last  ready  to  arouse 
itself  and  "  overtake  the  age." 

Despite  his  interest  in  sciences  and  his  services  to 
prominent  analysts,  Thoreau  was  never  fully  in 
accord  with  their  methods.  In  his  journal  for 
March  5, 1853,  he  acknowledges  a  circular  from  the 
Society  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  inquiring  as 
to  his  special  branch.  With  over-sensitiveness  he 
says  that  he  is  unwilling  to  "  be  made  their  laugh 
ing-stock,"  nor  will  he  consent  to  any  restricted 
classification.  He  adds, — "The  fact  is  I  am  a 


284          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

mystic,  a  Transcendentalist,  and  a  natural  philoso 
pher  to  boot."  To  complete  his  self -index,  he 
should  have  affixed  poet,  for  his  focus  of  criticism 
upon  science  is  ever  that  of  a  poet.  He  disputes 
the  exclusive  attitude  of  scientists,  who  restrict 
their  studies  to  the  actual  object,  and  so  neglect  its 
subjective  effects.  He  cares  not  whether  the  vision 
of  a  rainbow  is  "a  waking  thought  or  a  dream  re 
membered,  whether  it  is  seen  in  the  light  or  the 
dark." 

As  poet,  he  has  great  respect  for  the  results  of 
science,  while  he  objects  to  their  anatomic  methods. 
He  has  compared  the  poet  to  an  artist  with  color, 
the  scientist  to  a  sketcher  with  pencil.  Again  he 
urges  that  the  naturalist,  in  describing  an  animal, 
should  study  its  anima,  its  spirit,  the  living  creature. 
His  advocacy  and  example  in  this  regard  have  found 
a  worthy  exponent  in  the  popular  naturalist  of  to 
day,  Ernest  Seton-Thompson.  Declaring  that  no 
person  can  see,  at  the  same  time,  as  poet  and  scien 
tist,  Thoreau  avers, — "  The  poet's  second  love  may  be 
science  (not  his  first)  when  nse  has  worn  off  the 
bloom."  His  nomenclature  of  science  was  general 
and  broad  for  that  time;  his  reading  included 
nearly  all  the  best  authorities,  but  he  was  especially 
familiar  with  the  earlier  nature-students, — Aristotle, 
Pliny,  Linnaeus,  Gerard,  Tusser  and  Walton.  His 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          285 

specimens,  which  included  almost  all  kinds  of 
scientific  norms,  were  carefully  preserved  and  ar 
ranged  in  boxes  and  bins  of  his  own  manufacture. 
The  most  valuable  of  his  treasures,  including  rare 
lichens,  plants,  stones  and  Indian  relics,  were  given 
at  his  request,  after  his  death,  to  the  Massachusetts 
Natural  History  Society,  of  which  he  was  an  hon 
ored  member. 

Thoreau's  special  work  as  a  scientist  was  in  func 
tional  rather  than  in  biological  details.  The  habi 
tudes  and  moods,  the  changes  of  growth,  were  care 
fully  noted,  and  in  their  records  also  appeared  any 
subjective  effects  which  might  impress  him.  The 
ideality  of  the  poet-mystic  was  added  to  the  sym 
pathetic  vision  of  the  naturalist.  In  rereading  an 
old  volume  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  in  search  of 
Thoreau's  essays,  one  finds,  in  close  proximity  to 
the  lectures  on  "  Walking  "  and  "  Wild  Apples,"  a 
long  series  of  papers  by  Professor  Agassiz  on 
"  Methods  of  Studying  Natural  History."  Perhaps 
no  better  distinction  in  the  modes  and  minds  of  the 
two  classes  could  be  noted.  One  represented  that 
rare  type,  the  poet  and  philosopher  of  nature ; 
the  other  was  the  prince  of  exact,  tabulating 
scientists. 

Thoreau  is  more  closely  linked  with  Jefferies  than 
with  any  other  naturalist  who  preceded  or  was 


286          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

coeval  with  him.     Among  current  writers  on  nature 
he  is  variously  regarded  and  interpreted;  yet  all 
acknowledge  debts  of  inspiration,  if  not  of  educa 
tion,    gained    from    this    pioneer    teacher.      Two 
American  naturalists  who  have  recently  died,  pos 
sessed,  in  marked  measure,  the  poetic  observation 
and   the  patient  habit-study  which   characterized 
Thoreau.      These    were    Kowland    Eobinson    and 
Maurice    Thompson.     The    former    rustic    writer, 
student  of  simple  humanity  as  well  as  botanist,  in 
his   quiet,   primeval  life   and  his  lofty,  tenacious 
ideals,  suggested  kinship  to  Thoreau  in  tempera 
ment,  though  he  lacked  the  earnest,  studious  im 
pulses  of  the  Concord  naturalist.     Maurice  Thomp 
son,   cut    off    in    his    years    of    promise,    as   was 
Thoreau,  was  a  rhapsodic  yet  a  practical  nature- 
student.     His  poetry  surpasses  that  of  Thoreau  in 
structure  and  cadence  but  such  a  poem  as  "The 
Blue  Heron  "  is  singularly  suggestive  of  Thoreau  in 
spirit  and  habit  of  mind.     Both  men  had  practical 
occupations  amid  the  wild  and  rank  of  nature's 
growths,  for  Mr.  Thompson  served  many  years  as 
surveyor  and  geologist ;  both  became  sympathetic 
comrades  with  all  forms  and  moods  of  life  which 
environed  them. 

Mr.  Burroughs  and  some  of  his  school  of  nature- 
authors  have  emphasized  the  literary  mission  and 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          287 

occasionally  lack  the  unconscious,  spontaneous  im 
pulse  of  the  pure  naturalist.  Mr.  Burroughs,  how 
ever,  has  the  sharp  eyes  and  ears  of  a  modern 
trained  observer;  his  nature  is  cheery  and  grega 
rious,  and,  with  birds  and  animals,  no  less  than  with 
men,  he  is  an  intuitive,  kindly  comrade.  With  the 
literary  ease  and  poetic  memory  which  are  his,  his 
volumes  form  the  most  popular,  perhaps  the  most 
suggestive,  nature-pictures  for  reading  under  the 
summer  trees  or  by  the  winter  fireplace.  All  these 
later  writers  on  nature,  and  their  number  is  many, 
including  Mr.  Gibson,  Mr.  Torrey,  Dr.  Abbott,  Mr. 
Mabie,  Mrs.  Miller,  Mrs.  Parsons,  and  many  others, 
are  familiar  with  the  general  facts  and  classifica 
tions  in  natural  history,  many  of  which  have  been 
formulated  since  Thoreau's  day.  He  lived  at  the 
inception  of  the  dawn  for  scientific  nature-study  in 
America.  To  this,  indeed,  he  gave  the  most  potent 
influence.  The  later  authors  have  gained  in  con 
centration  and  penetration ;  they  lack  the  original 
surmises  and  the  unique  reflections  of  Thoreau's 
style.  They  seldom  emphasize,  as  he  did,  the  sub 
jective  effect  and  the  symbolic  message.  In  short, 
they  are  more  truly  naturalists  and  essayists,  less 
poets  and  mystics.  All  however,  from  Thoreau  to 
Chapman,  teach  the  primal  lesson  from  nature, — the 
need  of  simplification  and  clarification  of  life  be- 


288          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

fore  one  may  enter  with  full  blessing  into   her 
sanctuary. 

In  Thoreau's  writings  are  a  few  suggestions  re 
garding  the  relation  of  nature  to  art,  as  well  as  to 
science.  This  vast,  unfailing  fount  must  be  the 
true  source  of  all  inspiration  for  artists,  poets,  mu 
sicians,  orators,  and  moralists.  With  scorn  he  men 
tions  the  restricted  scope  of  art  in  his  own  day  and 
country,  an  art  which  "  cares  little  about  trees  and 
much  about  Corinthian  columns."  As  often  hap 
pened,  while  he  deplored  narrowness,  he  was  himself 
guilty  of  this  trait  in  his  judgment  on  many  of  the 
subjects  of  past  history  and  current  study.  In  the 
main,  however,  he  prophesied  some  of  the  later 
tendencies  in  art,  and  the  "  return  to  nature  "  for 
theme  and  color.  The  true  artist  will  describe  the 
most  familiar  objects  with  a  zest  and  vividness  of 
imagery  "  as  if  he  saw  it  for  the  first  time."  In 
illustration  of  this  text,  he  wrote  the  glowing  vision 
of  changing  tints: — "Nature  has  many  scenes  to 
exhibit,  and  constantly  draws  a  curtain  over  this 
part  or  that.  She  is  constantly  repainting  the 
landscape  and  all  surfaces,  dressing  up  some  scene 
for  our  entertainment.  Lately  we  had  a  leafy 
wilderness ;  now  bare  twigs  begin  to  prevail,  and 
soon  she  will  surprise  us  with  a  mantle  of  snow. 
Some  green  she  thinks  so  good  for  our  eyes  that, 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST         289 

like  blue,  she  never  banishes  it  entirely,  but  has 
created  evergreens." 

After  the  manner  of  the  earlier  naturalists,  Tho_ 
reau  apotheosized  farming  as  the  true  pursuit  that 
was  accordant  with  nature.  He  sought  to  elevate 
it  from  mere  manual  task  to  the  plane  of  poetic 
living.  His  letters  and  journal-comments  show  his 
discouraged  efforts  to  make  the  real  and  ideal  co 
alesce  on  this  theme.  He  met,  in  individual  phi 
losophy,  the  same  contradictions  and  irritations 
that  assailed  the  farmer-philosophers  at  Brook 
Farm  and  at  St.  George's  Guild.  He  alludes  with 
regret  to  the  horny  hands  of  the  farmer  and  his 
proneness  to  become  merely  a  machine  for  agri 
cultural  tasks,  callous  to  his  unexcelled  opportuni 
ties  for  nature-culture.  He  never  despairs,  how 
ever,  of  raising  the  farmer  into  a  poet  of  the 
highest  type.  To  the  Concord  farmers,  or  to  the 
sturdy  yeomen  of  chance  acquaintance,  Thoreau 
was  ever  a  friendly  and  practical  adviser.  Eager  to 
learn  from  them,  he,  in  turn,  suggested  improve 
ments  for  their  gardens,  surveyed  their  lands,  and 
analyzed  their  soils.  The  New  England  homesteads 
represented  to  him  the  true  "Arcadian  life."  It 
was  as  a  result  of  his  contact  with  nature,  and  farm- 
life  over  which  she  presided,  that  he  wrote  those 
cheery,  whimsical  lines,  "The  Eespectable  Folks," 


290          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

included  in  the  "  Poems  of  Nature,"  edited  by  Mr. 
Salt  and  Mr.  Sanborn ; 

"Where  dwell  they? 

They  whisper  in  the  oaks, 

And  they  sigh  in  the  hay, 

Slimmer  and  winter,  night  and  day, 

Out  on  the  meadows  there  dwell  they. 

They  never  die, 

Nor  snivel,  nor  cry, 

Nor  ask  our  pity 

With  a  wet  eye. 
A  sound  estate  they  ever  mend, 
To  every  asker  readily  lend  ; 

To  the  ocean  wealth, 

To  the  meadow  health, 

To  Time  his  length, 

To  the  rocks  strength, 

To  the  stars  light, 

To  the  weary  night, 

To  the  busy  day, 

To  the  idle  play  ; 

And  so  their  good  cheer  never  ends, 
For  all  are  their  debtors  and  all  their  friends." 

Fifty  years  ago  Thoreau  studied  nature  and  be 
came  her  scribe  and  interpreter  in  the  days  when 
she  was  scantily  known  and  meagrely  valued. 
With  limitations,  which  the  last  half  century 
has  emphasized  because  of  the  rapid  increase  of 
scientific  knowledge,  with  an  excess  of  mysticism 
and  poetic  subjectivity,  echo  of  the  true  New 
England  Transcendentalism,  he  was  the  first 
American  naturalist  to  combine  science  and  liter- 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST         291 

ature,  nature  facts  and  poetry,  in  volumes  and  un 
published  journals  that  defy  competition  in  devoted 
life-absorption.  Mr.  Paul  Elmer  More  has  well 
said, — "  Thoreau,  the  greatest  by  far  of  our  writers 
on  nature  and  the  creator  of  a  new  sentiment  in 
literature,  was  the  creator  also  of  a  new  manner  of 
writing  about  nature."  However  carefully  students 
may  follow  his  methods  of  research  and  portrayal, 
they  fail  to  gain  that  concentrated  and  pervasive 
spirit  which  was  his.  He  so  closely  identified  him 
self  with  the  seasons  and  all  their  messages  that  his 
pages  teem  with  a  glow  and  optimism  which  no 
rigor  or  fog  can  chill.  Eecall  the  cheery  challenge 
to  complaint  about  winter, — "Though  winter  is 
represented  in  the  almanac  as  an  old  man,  facing 
the  wind  and  sleet,  and  drawing  his  cloak  about 
him,  we  rather  think  of  him  as  a  merry  wood- 
chopper,  and  warm-blooded  youth,  as  blithe  as 
summer." 

If  Thoreau  stands  as  the  pioneer  poet-student  of 
nature,  he  is  also  the  most  fearless,  stimulating  phi 
losopher  and  seer  of  the  interrelations  between 
nature  and  society.  He  antithesized  the  complex, 
sham  commercialism,  then  a  mere  threat,  now  an 
enormous  reality,  as  wholly  averse  to  the  true  ex 
pansion  of  mind  and  soul.  In  nature  and  a  con 
stant  devotion  to  her  manifold  lessons,  he  found 


292          THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST 

the  sanative  reaction  from  excess  of  business  and 
society.  She  could  restore  health  and  contentment 
because  of  her  strength  and  steadfastness.  His 
contemporaries  regarded  such  sentiments  as  eccen 
tric  and  the  visions  of  a  poet.  To-day,  his  doc 
trines  of  nature,  and  her  part  in  retaining  the 
mental  and  physical  poise  of  a  well-rounded  life, 
are  the  accepted  tenets  of  tired,  distraught  men 
and  women.  They  form  the  basis  of  purpose,  not 
alone  in  the  plans  of  recreation  and  recuperation 
for  wearied  adults,  but  also  in  the  great  movement 
towards  nature  study  which  has  become  a  potent 
factor  in  the  modern  school-curriculum. 

Thoreau's  persistent  seclusion  often  prevented  him 
from  understanding  the  educative  influences  which 
combine  with  the  deteriorating  tendencies  in 
modern  luxurious  life.  Like  the  prophets  of  old, 
he  saw  only  danger  and  uttered  warnings  against 
the  social  and  commercial  allurements  which  would, 
in  time,  fatten  the  senses,  but  warp  the  mind  and 
shrivel  the  soul.  The  burden  of  his  plea  as  natural 
ist  and  poet  was  the  renunciation  of  the  superfluous 
and  time-stealing  luxuries  of  a  "hothouse  exist 
ence,"  the  substitution,  for  these  baneful  tempta 
tions,  of  a  devotion  to  nature  which,  in  brief  time 
would  satisfy  all  the  faculties,  would  bring  com 
radeship,  would  ensure  health  and  peace.  Finally, 


THOREAU  AS  NATURALIST          293 

to  the  listening  soul,  filled  with  true  love  for  na 
ture,  she  would  utter  her  messages  of  religious  truth 
and  contentment.  "  God  did  not  make  this  world 
in  jest,  no,  nor  in  indifference.  Those  migratory 
swallows  all  bear  messages  that  concern  my  life." 
Thoreau  experienced  the  disappointments  of  friend 
ship,  he  was  often  confronted  by  vexing  problems  in 
the  affairs  of  men  and  nations,  wherein  he  failed 
to  recognize  the  causes  of  such  tortuous  events; 
from  such  personal  and  philosophic  queries  of  doubt 
and  despair,  he  turned  always  to  nature,  to  find 
there  with  King  Arthur,  the  mingled  regret  and 
relief, — 

"  I  found  Him  in  the  shining  of  the  stars, 
I  mark'd  Him  in  the  flowering  of  His  fields, 
But  in  His  ways  with  men  I  find  Him  not.'1 


Thoreau's  Service  and  Rank  in 
Literature 


CHAPTEE  IX 

THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  BANK   IN  LITERATURE 

IN  Thoreau's  first  book,  "  A  Week  on  the  Concord 
and  Merrimack  Rivers,"  occur  two  significant 
sentences, — "Fame  itself  is  but  an  epitaph;  as 
late,  as  false,  as  true.  But  they  only  are  the  true 
epitaphs  which  Old  Mortality  retouches."  Like 
many  other  words,  viewed  from  the  focus  of  the 
present,  these  seem  prophetic  of  Thoreau's  own 
tardy  recognition,  revivified  and  strengthened  by 
the  pulse  of  passing  Time.  It  is  still  impossible  to 
give  an  ultimate  prediction  regarding  his  future 
rank  but  his  present  status  is  worthy  of  attention. 
Opinion  is  yet  divergent  on  the  question  of  his  work, 
as  literature,  per  se.  Some  critics  explain  the  interest 
which  tenaciously  clings  to  his  name  by  his  unique 
personality.  Others,  equally  insistent,  place  him  high 
on  the  century's  list  of  authors,  because  of  his  marked 
originality  in  theme  and  form.  Some  would  even 
outclass  Emerson  by  Thoreau  and  prophesy  that  the 
popularity  of  the  former  among  his  contemporaries 
is  only  another  indication  of  his  supersedence  among 

later  generations  by  the  man,  so  often  called  his 

297 


298      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

imitator  who,  lacking  Emerson's  grace  of  form,  sur 
passed  him  in  expulsive  and  oracular  force.  Such 
comment  is  entirely  unfair  to  both  writers  and 
would  seem  a  bombastic  application  of  Etaerson's 
own  doctrine  of  compensation. 

While  much  that  Thoreau  wrote  was  by  nature 
perishable,  while  doubtless  in  his  own  revision  much 
would  have  been  discarded,  and  the  wisdom  of  its 
publication  may  be  questioned,  there  remain  many 
pages  of  rare  value,  sufficient  to  ensure  his  place 
among  the  world's  benefactors  in  literature.  In 
his  recent  volume  of  historical  criticism,  "The 
Literary  History  of  America,"  Mr.  Barrett  Wendell, 
who  always  speaks  with  authority,  represents  the 
latest  judgment  on  Thoreau  as  author.  Of  him, 
Mr.  Wendell  says, — "  For  whatever  the  quality  of 
Thoreau's  philosophy,  the  man  was  in  his  own  way 
a  literary  artist  of  unusual  merit." 

The  new  interest  in  nature-study,  among  young 
and  old  during  the  last  few  years,  has  greatly  ex 
tended  knowledge  of  Thoreau  among  general 
readers.  Mr.  Burroughs  has  chosen  two  excellent 
adjectives  to  characterize  these  writings  and  their 
progressive  effects  upon  the  average  reader.  He 
calls  them  "  the  raciest  and  most  antiseptic  books 
in  English  literature,"  and  adds, — "  The  first  effect 
of  the  reading  of  his  books  upon  many  minds,  is 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      299 

irritation  and  disapproval ;  the  perception  of  their 
wisdom  and  beauty  comes  later."  Nor  need  critics 
take  such  violent  exceptions  to  Mr.  Burroughs' 
index  of  Thoreau  among  the  world's  great  wri 
ters, — "  in  the  front  of  the  second  class  of  American 
authors."  While  his  volumes  contain  ethical, 
scientific,  and  poetic  material,  unsurpassed  in  unique 
ness  and  volume,  as  a  litterateur  he  scarcely 
merits  place  beside  the  artists  in  structure  and 
style, — Irving,  Cooper,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  and 
Lowell.  It  is  as  difficult,  however,  to  give  him 
consistent  place  among  the  second  class  of  writers, 
many  of  whom  are  so  ephemeral  and  common 
place.  In  truth,  the  personality  and  the  writings 
alike  of  Thoreau  represented  such  an  extreme^ 
though  prescribed,  development  of  natural  genius 
and  transcendental  culture  that  they  defy  classifi 
cation  among  compeers.  Some  latter-day  natural 
ists  in  essay  form  may  be  spoken  of  as  successors  of 
Thoreau  but  they  are  in  no  sense  his  imitators  or 
even  his  disciples.  Dr.  Charles  Abbott  has  well 
said,—"  Thoreau  had  no  predecessor  and  can  have 


no  successor." 


In  raising  the  question  whether  Thoreau's  popu 
larity  is  due  to  passing  enthusiasm  for  nature,  or 
whether  he  has  attained  a  lasting  place,  not  alone 
in  native  letters  but  also  in  the  world's  literature, 


300     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

two  significant  facts  must  be  noted.  In  the  first 
place,  interest  in  his  writings  began  fifty  years  ago 
and  has  grown  steadily,  even  before  the  impulse  of 
the  last  two  decades.  Literary  comets  do  not  thus 
quietly  appear  and  remain.  In  the  second  place, 
while  his  books  concentre  about  nature,  they  treat 
a  second  subject  of  equal  import  to  humanity  in  all 
ages, — strong  thoughts  on  the  economy,  morality, 
and  true  use  of  life. 

Seldom  has  an  author  met  less  response  from 
publishers  and  public  during  lifetime  to  win,  as  if 
by  compensation,  such  cumulative  interest  after  his 
death.  As  a  result  of  twenty-five  years  of  writing, 
he  published  only  two  books.  The  literary  history 
of  those  decades,  however,  reveals  almost  parallel 
cases  of  defeat,  or  slowly-gained  success.  It  was 
the  critical  childhood  of  American  literature  and 
her  offspring  could  not  be  granted  too  great  free 
dom  or  praise  until  their  health  had  been  tested. 
The  survival  of  the  fittest  finds  oft  example  in 
American  literature  of  the  last  century.  Had 
Bryant,  Emerson,  or  Hawthorne  died  at  Thoreau's 
age,  forty-five,  they  would  have  had  scarcely  more 
recognition  during  their  lives.  Complacent  as  was 
Thoreau,  this  constant  failure  to  win  publishers  in 
Boston  and  New  York  discouraged,  and  then  dis 
gusted,  him.  While  his  chief  joy  was  in  the  ex- 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     301 

pression  of  his  thoughts  for  his  own  expansion,  he 
had  hoped  to  share  these  with  a  small  and  sympa 
thetic  reading-circle.  With  an  undertone  of  resig 
nation,  he  wrote ; — 

"Fame  cannot  tempt  the  bard 

Who's  famous  with  his  God, 
Nor  laurel  him  reward 
Who  has  his  Maker's  nod." 

On  no  account  would  he  desecrate  his  soul  by  ac 
cepting  compromises  or  subsidies,  that  he  might 
appear  in  print.  His  work  was  his  religion.  The 
literary  impulse  was  an  early  one  but  he  did  not 
live  in  an  age  when  literature  was  considered  a  pos 
sible  profession.  He  added  his  name  to  the  list  of 
pioneers,  led  by  Charles  Brockden  Brown,  Philip 
Freneau,  and  others,  who,  with  many  discourage 
ments  and  sturdy  patience,  established  literature 
among  the  professions  in  America.  In  a  letter  to 
his  sister  Helen,  in  1840,  he  had  hinted  at  this 
aspiration, — "  An  honest  book's  the  noblest  work  of 
man.  It  will  do  the  world  no  good  hereafter,  if 
you  merely  exist,  and  pass  life  smoothly  or  roughly ; 
but  to  have  thoughts  and  write  them  down,  that 
helps  greatly."  With  a  view  of  possible  use  as 
literary  material,  as  well  as  contemporary  record  of 
thoughts  and  life,  he  began  those  famous  journals 
which  have  furnished  the  nucleus  of  all  his  books, 


302      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

and  have  enabled  the  world  to  receive  fresh  impetus 
from  his  mind,  long  after  his  life  here  was  ended. 

The  keeping  of  journals  was  the  fashion  in  these 
days  of  few  books  and  many  stirring  thoughts. 
Alcott  had  voluminous  records,  a  small  part  of 
which  has  been  published ;  Hawthorne's  journals  or 
note-books,  of  earlier  and  later  life,  suggested  not 
alone  many  personal  experiences,  giving  the  best 
picture  of  the  inner  life  of  this  recluse,  but  also 
contained  many  germs  of  fancy  used  in  later  fic 
tion  ;  Emerson's  journals,  through  the  printed  por 
tions,  reveal  the  real  personality  behind  the  veil  of 
mystic  idealism, — they  were,  as  he  declares,  his 
"savings  banks."  The  query  of  Judge  Hoar, — 
"Why  should  Henry  Thoreau's  journals  be  pub 
lished  anyway?" — was  not  a  reproach  upon 
Thoreau  but  a  natural  inquiry  of  the  years  when 
journal-keeping  was  a  common  habit  but  journal- 
pullishing  had  not  yet  come  into  vogue. 

In  one  of  the  "  forensics,"  written  at  Harvard  in 
his  junior  year,  Thoreau  mentions  the  desirability 
of  "  keeping  a  private  journal  or  record  of  thoughts, 
feelings,  studies,  and  daily  experience."  In  this 
respect,  as  in  many  others,  he  simply  adopted  the 
habit  and  idea  of  others,  but  gave  to  his  personal 
application  an  intensity  and  absorption  which  made 
the  result  unusual  and  individual.  There  are  jour- 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     303 

nals  and  there  are  diaries.  The  latter  are  the  com 
mon  form, — mere  chronology  of  daily  experiences. 
In  the  last  generation  they  usually  began  in 
almanac  style  with  a  record  of  the  weather,  prob 
ably  a  legacy  from  "  Poor  Richard  "  and  his  com 
panions.  Even  these  trivial  and  laconic  diaries  are 
superseded  to-day  by  the  tyrannous  "  engagement 
book."  Thoreau's  journals,  from  the  inception  of 
the  idea,  belonged  to  the  loftier  literary  form,  like 
the  soul-records  of  Saint  Augustine,  Montaigne, 
Amiel,  or  Thomas  a  Kempis,  or  the  "  Table-Talk  "  of 
Luther  and  Coleridge.  To  him  the  journal  became 
"  a  record  of  experiences  and  growth,  not  a  preserve 
of  things  well  done  and  said."  His  thoughts  and 
inner  experiences,  emotions,  moods  and  aspirations, 
were  jotted  down  that  later  they  might  be  united 
into  a  literary  frame-work. 

In  the  same  college  essay,  in  which  he  advocates 
the  maintenance  of  a  journal,  he  expands  this  idea 
somewhat  by  describing  the  view  from  his  "  little 
Gothic  window,"  and  his  reveries  on  the  quiet  Sun 
day  afternoon.  In  a  fragmentary  way  he  began 
the  next  year,  1835,  to  record  occasional  thoughts 
and  observations.  According  to  his  own  statement, 
"  the  big  red  journal "  of  596  pages,  was  begun  in 
October,  1837,  and  ended  June,  1840.  To  it  suc 
ceeded  the  thirty-five  smaller  volumes,  ripe  with 


304     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

the  racy  thoughts  which  the  public  has  already 
gleaned  in  part.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  see 
these  treasured  little  blank-books,  varying  in  size 
and  somewhat  in  thickness,  though  seldom  aggre 
gating  more  than  one  hundred  pages.  They  are 
arranged  to  contain  the  entries  of  about  six  months 
each ;  many  of  them  are  carefully  indexed.  Until 
the  last  year  of  his  life,  when  the  records  are 
meagre,  they  were  written  in  ink,  in  that  peculiar, 
uneven  handwriting  here  reproduced.  In  examin 
ing  these  little  books,  carefully  treasured  to-day 
in  their  bank-vault,  one  realizes  how  laborious 
must  have  been  the  editing  by  Mr.  Blake,  carried 
on  with  earnest,  devoted  enthusiasm,  which 
transformed  the  difficulties  into  labors  of  love. 
The  notes  are  most  puzzling  to  decipher,  both  be 
cause  of  the  irregularity  of  the  letter-form  and  also 
on  account  of  many  abbreviations.  Interspersed 
are  a  few  pen-illustrations  of  the  different  objects 
described.  The  portions  of  pages,  which  he  ex 
tracted  for  his  published  work  before  his  last  sick 
ness,  are  carefully  indicated ;  the  selections  used  in 
preparation  for  further  volumes,  during  the  last 
months  of  his  life,  are  also  marked  with  marginal 
notes.  In  addition  to  the  journals  bearing  certain 
dates,  are  two  volumes  of  extracts  from  his 
thoughts  and  readings.  Nearly  all  the  journals 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     305 

were  written  in  an  accountant's  ledger  of  small 
size.  One  of  Thoreau's  direct  complaints  against 
the  growing  commercialism  of  his  age  was  that  he 
could  not  buy  proper  blank-books,  in  which  to 
record  his  thoughts  and  relations  with  nature,  with 
out  finding  within  them  the  inevitable  and  mercan 
tile  red-lines  for  dollars  and  cents. 

These  journals,  as  innately  regarded,  are  most 
remarkable  for  their  mingled  sameness  and  variety ; 
serene  sameness  of  general  theme  but  unending 
variety  of  expression  and  image.  Nature,  friend 
ship,  books,  morality,  justice, — such  are  the  reiter 
ated  subjects.  Are  they  not  the  universal  concepts 
of  a  higher  range  of  thought  and  life  ?  In  all  the 
records  there  is  a  vital,  intense  touch,  or  a  unique 
illustration  with  potent  force,  which  seem  to  reveal 
the  man  behind  the  pen,  however  abstruse  and 
chimerical  may  be  the  idea.  He  wrote, — "My 
journal  should  be  the  record  of  my  love.  I  would 
write  in  it  only  of  the  things  I  love,  my  affection 
for  an  aspect  of  the  world,  what  I  love  to  think  of." 
It  is  not  strange  that,  by  this  mingling  of  enthu 
siasm  and  worthy  exclusion,  these  journal-pages 
have  such  perennial  vitality.  Their  dual  charm  is 
in  the  philosophy  mingled  with  nature-pictures  and 
melodies.  Such  were  the  manifestations  of  the 
author's  own  duality, — "  the  sylvan  and  the  human." 


306     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

In  editing  the  volume,  "  Summer,"  Mr.  Blake  quoted 
Thoreau's  own  plan  of  these  journals,  to  make  "  a 
book  of  the  seasons,  each  page  of  which  should  be 
written  in  its  own  season  and  out-of-doors,  or  in  its 
own  locality,  wherever  it  may  be."  Acting  on  this 
suggestion,  the  executor  sifted  and  combined  the 
thoughts  for  each  season,  a  work  of  exhaustive, 
loving  effort,  until  now  the  circle  of  the  year  is  com 
plete.  Alcott  well  summarized,  in  his  own  journal, 
the  value  of  Thoreau's  "masterpieces, — a  choice 
mingling  of  physical  and  metaphysical  elements. 
.  .  .  Quick  with  thought  his  sentences  are  col 
ored  and  consolidated  therein  by  his  plastic  genius." 
Perchance,  it  was  to  this  friend  that  the  thought  of 
publishing  these  journals,  may  be  first  traced ; — "A 
delightful  volume  might  be  compiled  from  Tho 
reau's  journals  by  selecting  what  he  wrote  at  a 
certain  date  annually,  thus  giving  a  calendar  of  his 
thoughts  on  that  day  from  year  to  year."  Such 
volumes,  he  adds,  would  be  "instructive  alike  to 
naturalist,  farmer,  woodman  and  scholar." 

While  the  journals  were  the  granaries  from  which 
the  larger  number  of  Thoreau's  books  were  to  be 
gathered,  his  earliest  efforts  at  publication  were 
through  the  magazines.  Dr.  Jones,  in  his  valuable 
bibliography  of  Thoreau,  has  collated  the  few 
interesting  magazine  articles  published  during  his 


-' 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     307 

life  or  soon  after  his  death.  In  addition  to  his 
contributions  to  The  Dial,  his  only  noteworthy 
essays  were  the  study  of  Carlyle  in  Graham's,  in 
1847,  a  portion  of  "The  Yankee  in  Canada"  in 
Putnam's  in  1853,  and  the  article  on  "  The  Maine 
Woods  "  in  the  Atlantic  which  caused  the  strained 
relations  with  Lowell,  already  mentioned.  He  also 
contributed  to  the  Democratic  Review,  and  some 
other  organs  of  anti-slavery  trend.  The  year  be 
fore  Thoreau's  death,  Mr.  James  T.  Fields  suc 
ceeded  to  the  editorship  of  the  Atlantic.  He  had 
visited  Thoreau  at  Walden  and  at  Concord,  was 
deeply  interested  in  him  as  man  and  writer,  and 
invited  him  to  become  a  contributor  to  his  maga 
zine.  The  lectures  on  "  "Walking  "  and  "  Autumnal 
Tints,"  with  the  study  of  "Wild  Apples,"  which 
have  been  mentioned,  appeared  a  few  months  before 
his  death,  prepared  and  revised  in  that  cheery 
sitting-room  that  refused  to  accept  any  suggestion 
of  gloom  or  idleness.  These  essays  are  among  the 
best  work  which  bears  Thoreau's  name.  They  are 
breezy  and  cogent,  fitting  sequels  to  the  active, 
nature-enshrined  life  of  their  author. 

The  papers  on  slavery  themes  are  included  in  the 
volume  of  his  essays.  Here  also  is  that  fine  study 
of  Carlyle,  so  well  conceived  and  executed  that  the 
reader  regrets  Thoreau's  failure  to  act  upon  Greeley's 


308      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

advice  to  supplement  this  article  with  similar  studies 
on  Emerson,  Alcott,  and  Hawthorne.  The  refusal 
was  probably  due  to  two  causes  which  are,  perhaps, 
identical  in  sequel.  In  the  first  place,  Thoreau  was 
the  last  man  who  would  coin  money  out  of  his 
friendships.  He  would  not  openly  reveal  the 
defects  which  his  keen  mind  perceived.  On  the 
other  hand,  his  sure  sense  of  justice  and  truth 
would  preclude  any  concealment  of  flaws  in  a 
critical  study.  Thus,  his  idealistic  sentiment  on 
friendship  and  his  absolute  sincerity  combined  to 
prevent  any  published  judgment  on  his  friends. 
In  a  different  and  impersonal  way  Carlyle  had  been 
a  formative  influence  in  Thoreau's  life.  To  him, 
unbound  by  the  ties  of  friendship,  he  could  give 
careful  and  frank  analysis.  He  has  most  happily 
mingled  tribute  and  censure.  In  truth,  this  essay 
on  Carlyle  ranks  to-day  as  one  of  the  most  just, 
sympathetic  and  comprehensive  analyses  of  the 
great  prophet-author.  It  is  interesting  to  read,  by 
way  of  comparison,  the  study  by  Lowell.  Both 
Thoreau  and  Lowell,  as  young  men,  had  been 
thrilled  by  this  new  voice  of  the  age.  Lowell,  with 
characteristic  apprehension,  analyzes  Carlyle's  lit 
erary  qualities, — his  humor,  his  vehemence,  his 
imagery, — while  Thoreau  is  stirred  by  the  moral 
earnestness  and  deep  sincerity  of  the  man  and  seer. 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      309 

Thoreau  could  deeply  sympathize  with  "  this  brave 
looker-on"  who  "never  sacrificed  one  jot  of  his 
honest  thought  to  art  or  whim,  but  to  utter  himself 
in  the  most  direct  and  effectual  way, — that  is  the 
endeavor."  These  two  men,  coeval  prophets  of 
social  degeneracy,  had  many  similitudes  of  tempera 
ment  and  thought.  In  the  emphasis  of  individual 
ism,  of  work,  of  hero-worship  for  the  undaunted 
men  of  the  past,  in  the  expulsive  comments  on 
modern  society,  in  the  paradoxical  catholicity  and 
narrow  prejudice,  they  suggest  frequent  comparison. 
Thoreau  unconsciously  dissects  his  own  nature, 
when  he  says  of  Carlyle,— "  Not  the  most  free  and 
catholic  observer  of  men  and  events,  for  they  are 
likely  to  find  him  preoccupied,  but  unexpectedly 
free  and  catholic  when  they  fall  within  the  focus  of 
his  lens." 

One  could  scarcely  admire  Carlyle,  as  deeply 
as  did  Thoreau,  without  also  accepting  much 
of  Goethe's  teaching.  In  the  portion  of  "Thurs 
day,"  in  "  A  Week,"  is  a  careful,  appreciative  study 
of  Goethe's  moral  and  literary  significance,  one  of 
the  first  and  best  American  criticisms  on  the  great 
inspirer  of  modern  literary  standards.  These  early 
essays  of  Thoreau,  many  of  them  incorporated  in 
part  into  his  first  book,  evidence  more  literary  in 
sight  than  his  later  volumes  reveal.  As  the  years 


310      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

passed,  with  the  Walden  residence  and  its  em 
phasis  of  his  mission  as  nature-interpreter,  the 
naturalistic  tastes  seemed  to  submerge  the  literary 
and  critical.  He  also  became  more  concerned  with 
the  problems  of  morality  and  government,  less 
devoted  to  literary  models.  Once  again,  in  later 
years,  he  became  interested  in  an  author  whose 
genius  and  crudeness  evoked  many  comments  in 
Thoreau's  letters.  During  a  visit  to  New  Jersey  in 
1856,  he  called  on  Walt  Whitman.  In  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Blake,  after  the  incident,  Thoreau  wrote, — "  He 
is  apparently  the  greatest  democrat  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  He  is  very  broad,  but,  as  I  have  said, 
not  fine."  Thoreau  was  essentially  "fine,"  he  was 
sensitively  repelled  by  any  coarseness,  in  what 
ever  veneer  of  refinement.  This  quality  combated 
his  desire  to  appreciate  Whitman.  Always  recog 
nizing  the  latter 's  democracy,  religious  faith,  and 
affinity  with  nature,  Thoreau  could  not  excuse  his 
treatment  of  sexual  love.  To  him  no  sentiment  was 
so  delicate,  so  sacred,  too  holy  for  bald  or  open 
"celebration."  He  said  of  Whitman's  attitude, — 
"  He  does  not  celebrate  love  at  all.  It  is  as  if  the 
beasts  spoke."  He  was,  however,  too  large  a  man 
in  judgment  to  allow  these  disagreeable  interpola 
tions  to  dim  his  impress  of  Whitman's  real  power 
and  stimulus.  After  he  had  read  with  care  the 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     311 

copy  of  poems  given  him  by  their  author,  he 
wrote, — "  Though  rude  and  sometimes  ineffectual, 
it  is  a  great  primitive  poem, — an  alarum  or  trumpet- 
note  ringing  through  the  American  camp." 

Thoreau's  volumes,  exclusive  of  the  extracts  from 
his  journals,  edited  since  his  death,  are  quite  dis 
tinctive  and  representative  of  the  versatile  traits  of 
the  man.  The  first  book,  "  A  "Week  on  the  Concord 
and  Merrimack  Rivers,"  shows  the  naturalist,  in  the 
romantic  and  poetic  phases  of  his  development,  and 
the  literary  student  fresh  from  the  influence  of  the 
classics.  His  philosophic  inquiries  are  in  incipient 
stages.  In  "  Walden  "  the  latter  find  more  experi 
mental  treatment  and  the  book  was  the  work 
of  a  naturalist-philosopher,  even  as  the  earlier 
volume  bore  stamp  of  the  naturalist-poet.  The 
three  volumes,  "Excursions,"  "The  Maine  Woods," 
and  "  Cape  Cod,"  records  largely  prepared  by  the 
author  for  the  press  during  his  last  months,  are  yet 
more  representative  of  the  naturalist  and  his  zeal 
for  botanical,  geological,  and  ethnological  dis 
coveries.  The  traveler  was  a  scientist,  but  he  was 
also  a  poet  and  a  philosopher;  he  had  become  a 
keen  student  of  life  as  well  as  nature,  and  these  later 
volumes  contain  a  gallery  of  vivid  types  and  indi 
viduals. 

"A  Week,"  with   its  varied  themes  chosen  for 


312      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

each  day,  from  piscatory  facts  to  Indian  history, 
Buddhism,  friendship,  and  poetry,  affords  an  im 
pressionist  picture  of  Thoreau  during  these  years  of 
developing  manhood  which  culminated  at  Walden. 
Many  of  the  most  pithy  thoughts  quoted  by  Mr. 
Blake,  in  his  volume  of  epigrams,  are  traced  to  this 
first  book.  It  was  essentially  a  literary  promise, — 
appropriate  is  the  buoyant  stanza  of  greeting, — 

' '  Ply  the  oars  !  away  !  away  ! 
In  each  dewdrop  of  the  morning 
Lies  the  promise  of  a  day." 

The  quotations,  which  introduce  the  several  sec 
tions,  index  the  young  scholar's  devotion  to  all  the 
best  poets  of  the  past  and  to  Tennyson,  Emerson, 
and  Channing  of  his  own  time.  One  of  the  most 
significant  reviews  of  this  book  was  by  Lowell  in 
The  Massachusetts  Quarterly,  for  December,  1849. 
Eegarding  the  volume  as  a  record  of  travel, 
Lowell  praised  the  author  as  a  modern  disciple  of 
the  leisurely,  old-time  traveler-poet,  who  is  "  both 
wise  man  and  poet, — the  true  cosmopolitan  and 
citizen  of  the  beautiful."  He  appreciated  the  lit 
erary  flavor  no  less  than  the  "fresh  smell  of  the 
woods."  With  enthusiastic  comments,  the  critic 
also  refers  to  the  poems,  melodious  and  distinct, 
which  form  the  interludes  to  the  prose  narration. 
Here  are  those  tender  stanzas  "To  the  Maiden  in 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     313 

the  East,"  quoted  in  an  earlier  chapter,  the  poem  on 
the  Concord  Kiver,  the  noble  panegyric  to  the 
mountains,  and  the  more  familiar  stanzas,  "Sic 
Yita,"  "  To  a  Swallow  "  and  "  Sympathy."  Some 
of  these  poems  had  appeared  in  The  Dial,  but  were 
here  given  permanent  lodgment. 

The  rare  poetic  promise  of  Thoreau's  early  man. 
hood,  versus  the  suppression  of  poetic  form  in  later 
life,  will  always  be  a  regretful  and  puzzling  theme 
to  his  critics.  Among  other  incidental  statements 
is  the  explanation,  given  by  him  during  his  last 
weeks,  that  he  was  dissuaded  from  writing  and 
publishing  more  poetry  by  Emerson's  criticisms. 
Such  assertion,  which  comes  through  intermediate 
sources,  seems  scarcely  adequate  to  explain  his 
renunciation.  Thoreau  was  too  self-reliant  to 
accept  any  one's  verdict  on  a  matter  involving 
self-development.  The  real  cause  for  the  gradual 
and  almost  complete  transference  to  prose  forms  is 
probably  found  in  the  deepening  earnestness  and 
serious  studies  of  nature  and  life  to  which  his 
mature  years  were  devoted.  Doubtless,  the  criti 
cisms  upon  his  ruggedness  of  metre  and  mystical 
enigmas  of  thought,  many  of  them  quite  as  ap 
plicable  to  Emerson's  own  verse,  fostered  the 
inclination  to  abandon  metrical  form,  but  his  poetic 
imagery  remained  to  the  last.  As  Carlyle's  prose 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

was  marked  by  bursts  of  matchless  melody,  so 
the  pages  of  Thoreau,  in  journal  or  finished  essay, 
abound  in  passages  of  rare  prose-poetry.  Listen 
again  to  this  poet's  swan-song,  in  "  Walking,"  "  So 
we  saunter  towards  the  Holy  Land,  till  one  day 
when  the  sun  shall  shine  more  brightly  than  ever 
he  has  done,  shall  perchance  shine  into  our  minds 
and  hearts,  and  light  up  our  whole  lives  with  a 
great  awakening  light,  as  warm  and  serene  and 
golden  as  on  a  bank  side  in  autumn." 

In  his  later  years  of  more  strenuous  thought  the 
poetic  fancies  became  submerged,  or,  more  truly, 
assimilated.  They  were  never  expelled.  One  of 
the  last  acts  of  his  life  was  the  destruction  of 
several  poems,  written  at  varied  periods, — an 
irreparable  loss  to  biography  and  literature.  With 
truth,  Emerson  said,  "  Thoreau's  best  biography  is 
in  his  poems."  Perhaps,  he  realized  the  unveiled 
light  which  these  would  cast  upon  certain  repressed 
experiences  of  heart  and  soul,  treasured  memories 
to  him  but  too  sacred  to  be  paraded  before  a  curious 
public.  If  Thoreau's  poems  are  marred  by  indirect 
ness  and  excess  of  philosophic  trend,  there  are 
occasional  stanzas  of  freedom  and  beauty.  Love  of 
music,  whether  heard  in  nature's  tones  or  in  the 
artificial  strains  of  a  music-box,  was  a  lifelong  trait 
of  Thoreau.  It  was  to  him  a  means  of  religion,  of 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      315 

soul-exaltation; — "The  profane  never  hear  music, 
the  holy  ever  hear  it.  It  is  God's  voice,  the  divine 
breath  audible." 

Emerson  and  other  friends  often  refer  to  Thoreau's 
delicate  skill  upon  the  flute;  from  it  he  would  evoke 
melodies  otherwise  unknown.  There  seemed  an 
aptness  in  Thoreau's  love  for  the  flute, — the  symbol 
of  classic  times  and  the  legends  of  Pan.  Here  was 
a  new  god  of  woods  and  fields.  With  exquisite 
sympathy  Miss  Alcott  wove  this  thought  into  her 
elegy  of  Thoreau,  written  amid  night  watches  in 
the  hospital  of  the  battle-fields.  She  refers  to  the 
strange  incident  told  by  the  family,  that,  after 
Thoreau's  death,  a  passing  breeze  over  his  flute,  as 
it  hung  upon  the  wall,  brought  forth  a  plaintive 
note,  as  if  a  message  from  its  master  ;— 

"Then  from  the  flute,  untouched  by  hands, 
There  came  a  low,  harmonious  breath  ; 
For  such  as  he  there  is  no  death  ; — 
Above  man's  aims  his  nature  rose. 
The  wisdom  of  a  just  content 
Made  one  small  spot  a  continent, 
And  turned  to  poetry  life's  prose. 

lt  To  him  no  vain  regrets  belong 
Whose  soul,  that  finer  instrument, 
Gave  to  the  world  no  poor  lament, 
But  woodnotes  ever  sweet  and  strong. 
O  lonely  friend  !  he  still  will  be 
A  potent  presence  though  unseen, — 
Steadfast,  sagacious,  and  serene  ; 
Seek  not  for  him— he  is  with  thee  !  " 


316      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

In  this  same  first  volume  are  found  the  two  son 
nets,  "  Smoke  "  and  "  Haze,"  which  were  published 
earlier  in  The  Dial  in  April,  1843.  The  former, 
which  is  placed  by  Mr.  Stedman  in  his  "  American 
Anthology,"  represents  lofty,  poised  imagination  as 
well  as  skilful  structure.  It  was  considered  a  pro 
phetic  note  of  a  young  American  sonnetteer.  Like 
much  of  Thoreau's  work  in  verse  and  prose,  the  full 
cadence  of  this  poem  can  only  be  appreciated  when 
read  aloud ; — 

' '  Light- winged  Smoke  !    Icarian  bird, 
Melting  thy  pinions  in  thy  upward  flight  ; 
Lark  without  song,  and  messenger  of  dawn, 
Circling  above  the  hamlets  as  thy  nest ; 
Or  else,  departing  dream,  and  shadowy  form 
Of  midnight  vision,  gathering  up  thy  skirts  ; 
By  night  star-veiling,  and  by  day 
Darkening  the  light  and  blotting  out  the  sun  ; 
Go  thou,  my  incense,  upward  from  this  hearth, 
And  ask  the  gods  to  pardon  this  clear  flame." 

It  has  been  stated  that  Thoreau,  at  inspired 
moments,  wrote  detached  stanzas  and  committed 
them  to  his  journal  in  varied  contexts  and  after 
wards  combined  them  into  complete  poems.  There 
is  proof  of  this  method  in  some  of  his  earlier  work. 
A  loss  of  coherency  sometimes  results  when  the 
stanza,  in  "  A  Week,"  is  taken  from  its  contiguous 
prose  and  refitted  into  a  complete  poem.  In  ad 
dition  to  unrelated  metrical  stanzas,  there  are  dis- 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      317 

tinct  mind-images,  like  the  sublime  tribute  to  the 
mountains  or  the  gentle  love-poem,  already  cited. 

Thoreau's  initial  volume  cannot  be  accounted  a 
failure  as  literature  because  seven  hundred  copies 
of  the  edition  were  returned  unsold.  Like  many 
another  book,  unappreciated  by  the  public,  it  won 
for  its  author  the  respectful  interest  of  a  few  men 
of  poetic  and  critical  minds.  Though  distinctly 
immature  in  parts,  it  suggested  the  plenteous  harvest 
of  thoughts  on  nature  and  life  possible  to  one  who 
had  scattered  thus  widely  seeds  of  poetry  and  phi 
losophy.  Reread  to-day  with  the  memories  of  his 
later  work,  the  book  still  seems  fertile  in  descrip 
tions,  ideals,  poetry,  despite  much  abstruseness  and 
detachment.  Among  the  letters  which  came  to 
Thoreau  in  honor  of  his  venture  in  authorship  was 
one  from  Froude  which,  for  some  reason,  probably 
modesty  and  reserve,  was  not  shown  by  Thoreau 
and  is  not  included  in  the  "Familiar  Letters."  It 
is  in  a  collection  of  "  Unpublished  Letters  of  Henry 
and  Sophia  Thoreau,"  edited  and  privately  printed 
by  Dr.  Jones  in  1899.  Thoreau  had  read  Froude's 
"  Nemesis  of  Faith,"  perhaps  Emerson's  copy,  and, 
in  expressing  his  interest  in  this  somewhat  anarch 
ical  book,  he  had  forwarded  to  its  author  a  copy  of 
"  A  Week,"  recently  published.  In  a  letter  from 
Manchester.  September  3,  1849,  the  English  critic 


318     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

expressed  strong,  effusive  admiration  for  the  young 
Concord  author  and  his  book.  Among  other  sen 
tences  of  laudation  are  these  : — "  When  I  think  of 
what  you  are, — of  what  you  have  done  as  well  as 
what  you  have  written, — I  have  the  right  to  tell 
you  that  there  is  no  man  living  upon  the  earth  at 
present,  whose  friendship  or  whose  notice  I  value 
more  than  yours.  In  your  book  and  in  one  other 
from  your  side  of  the  Atlantic, — *  Margaret,'  I  see 
hope  for  the  coming  world.  ...  In  the  mean 
time,  I  will  but  congratulate  you  on  the  age  in 
which  your  work  is  cast ;  the  world  has  never  seen 
one  more  pregnant."  That  last  sentence  must  have 
raised  a  sardonic  smile  on  the  face  of  the  young 
philosopher  whose  volume  had  searched  so  long  for 
a  publisher,  whose  author  had  spent  ten  successive 
weeks  in  hard  manual  work  to  meet  the  expense  of 
its  issue,  and  whose  shoulders  were  soon  to  bear  the 
bulk  of  the  edition  up  the  garret-stairs. 

Profiting  by  the  censures  of  vagueness  and  laxity 
of  form  upon  this  first  volume,  recognizing  the  in 
terest,  if  not  the  real  value,  of  his  experiment  at 
Walden,  if  narrated  with  directness  and  humor, 
Thoreau  constructed  a  book  which  happily  mingled 
the  personal  and  the  theoretical,  earnest  teaching 
and  droll  anecdote.  In  its  unique  form  and  theme, 
with  spicy  humor  and  delicate  nature-lore,  it  is  one 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      319 

of  the  most  remarkable  books  of  modern  literature. 
The  public  made  a  mild  response  to  its  appearance 
in  1856  and  two  years  after  more  than  two  thou 
sand  copies  had  been  sold  or  dispersed.  Emerson 
was  especially  enthusiastic  over  "Walden."  In  a 
letter  to  a  friend,  soon  after  the  book  was  pub 
lished,  he  wrote ; — "  All  American  kind  are  de 
lighted  with  '  Walden  '  as  far  as  they  have  dared 
to  say.  The  little  pond  sinks  in  these  days  as 
tremulous  at  its  human  fame.  I  do  not  know  if 
the  book  has  come  to  you  yet,  but  it  is  cheerful, 
sparkling,  readable,  with  all  kinds  of  merits,  and 
rising  sometimes  to  very  great  heights.  We  count 
Henry  the  undoubted  king  of  all  American  lions." 
Thoreau  received  many  letters  of  tribute  and  some 
of  questions.  To  his  journal  he  confides  the  diverse 
and  puzzled  attitudes  of  the  public  towards  the 
book.  He  cites  the  case  of  one  reader  who  enjoyed 
"  Walden "  but  viewed  it  as  a  huge  satire  and  in 
sisted  that  the  map  of  the  town,  even,  must  be 
merely  a  caricature  of  the  Coast  Survey. 

The  permanent  vitality  of  "  Walden  "  is  its  sure 
excuse  for  being.  Its  spontaneity  and  vigor  are  as 
pervasive  in  the  reading-world  as  they  were  a  half- 
century  ago.  Mr.  George  R.  Bartlett  relates  his 
encounter  in  the  West  with  a  Russian  Jew  who  had 
read  some  stray  leaves  of  "  Walden  "  while  still  in 


320     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

his  native  land.  He  was  so  inspired  by  its  atmos 
phere  of  freedom  and  hope  and  its  suggestions  of 
economy  of  life,  that  he  came  to  America  to  gain  a 
liberal  education.  That  accomplished,  he  was  de 
termined  to  translate  the  book,  which  had  been  his 
inspiration,  into  the  Eussian  tongue,  that  the  young 
men  might  read  it  and  assimilate  its  hopeful,  vital 
lessons  from  nature  and  simple  life.  In  addition  to 
the  valuable  studies  in  natural  history,  for  these  are 
what  "Walden"  primarily  affords,  besides  the 
practical  and  sage  advice  on  material  life,  well  illus 
trated  by  epigram  and  personal  anecdote,  there  are 
some  clever  life-sketches,  cartoons  and  photographs. 
With  a  realism  worthy  of  Balzac,  he  describes  the 
Collins  family,  from  whom  he  bought  the  boards 
for  his  lodge ; — "  At  six  I  passed  him  and  his  fam 
ily  on  the  road.  One  large  bundle  held  all, — bed, 
coffee-mill,  looking-glass,  hens, — all  but  the  cat,  she 
took  to  the  woods  and  became  a  wild-cat  and,  as  I 
learned  afterwards,  trod  in  a  trap  set  for  wood- 
chucks,  and  so  became  a  dead  cat  at  last."  With 
similar  compound  of  humor  and  realism,  he  intro 
duced  the  family  of  shiftless  John  Field ;  his  wife 
"  with  the  never-absent  mop  in  one  hand  and  yet 
no  effects  of  it  visible  anywhere." 

Cape  Cod  excels  in  light  sketches,  semi-humor 
ous,  semi-sympathetic.     Valuable  as  a  naturalist's 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     321 

survey  of  ocean,  marsh,  and  beach,  it  ranks  an  easy 
second  to  "  Walden  "  in  characterizations  and  enter 
taining  miniatures.  Such  are  the  coarse  Nauset 
woman,  "  who  looked  as  if  she  had  committed  in 
fanticide"  and  "as  if  it  made  her  head  ache  to 
live " ;  the  postmistress,  "  said  to  be  the  best  on 
the  road,  but  we  suspected  that  the  letters  must  be 
subjected  to  very  close  scrutiny  there  " ;  the  Well- 
fleet  Oysterman,  aged  eighty-eight,  under  "  petticoat 
government " ;  and  the  lighthouse  keeper  who  read 
the  newspaper  by  the  light  of  fifteen  Argand  lamps, 
while  Thoreau  suggests  that  the  Bible  alone  should 
be  read  beneath  such  grand,  far-reaching  glow. 
There  is  pure  drollery  in  his  description  of  the 
stage-coach  and  its  crowded  interior, — a  vivid 
glimpse  into  earlier  travel-customs  : — "  This  coach 
was  an  exceedingly  narrow  one  but  as  there  was 
a  slight  spherical  excess  over  two  on  a  seat,  the 
driver  waited  till  nine  passengers  had  got  in,  with 
out  taking  the  measure  of  any  of  them,  and  then 
shut  the  door  after  two  or  three  ineffectual  slams, 
as  if  the  fault  were  all  in  the  hinges  or  the  latch, — 
while  we  timed  our  inspirations  and  expirations  so 
as  to  assist  him." 

Such  characterizations  show  the  peculiar  wit  and 
humor  that  Thoreau  possessed.  He  was  master  of 
both  keen  sarcasm  and  pungent  humor.  As  the 


322      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

years  passed,  the  wit  became  more  pronounced, 
justifying  Mr.  Burroughs'  pithy  comment  that  his 
humor  "  had  worked  a  little,  a  vinous  fermentation 
had  taken  place  more  or  less  in  it."  In  the  vol 
umes  which  he  prepared  for  publication  are  touches 
of  anecdote  or  witty  illustration  which  distinguish 
them  from  the  compilations  made  from  his  journals 
by  other  hands.  Often  Thoreau  added  these  light 
some  elements  at  the  last,  for  they  are  missing 
in  the  original  context.  In  the  same  way  he  ar 
ranged  his  material  in  sections,  with  breaks  and 
sub-titles,  thereby  adding  both  variety  and  com 
pactness.  Such  subtle  modes  example  the  literary 
artist  who  knows  how  to  charm  the  general  reader 
as  well  as  to  ensnare  the  thoughtful  few.  With  all 
gratitude  to  the  faithful  editor  of  the  later  volumes, 
it  is  justice  to  Thoreau  to  remember  that,  had  he 
lived,  doubtless,  their  form  would  have  been  less 
monotonous  and  more  finished,  as  were  the  books 
revised  by  his  own  hand. 

"  The  Yankee  in  Canada  "  has  a  merry  tone  and 
the  fun  is  largely  at  his  own  expense.  At  the  out 
set,  he  declares ; — "  I  fear  that  I  have  not  got  much 
to  say  about  Canada,  not  having  seen  much, — what 
I  got  by  going  to  Canada  was  a  cold."  Again,  he 
recounts  the  droll  efforts  to  talk  with  their  Cana 
dian  host,  deciding  at  last  that  "  a  less  crime  would 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      323 

be  committed  on  the  whole  if  we  spoke  French 
with  him,  and  in  no  respect  aided  or  abetted  his 
attempts  to  speak  English."  Like  all  true  hu 
morists,  especially  of  the  last  generation,  Thoreau 
delighted  in  puns.  Some  of  them  were  cogent, 
others  weak.  He  wrote, — "  I  am  monarch  of  all  I 
survey  " ;  and  again,  "  I  love  to  lie  and  re-ly  on  the 
earth."  After  his  disappointing  visit  to  a  town  on 
the  Cape,  he  wrote, — "  Ours  was  but  half  a  Sand 
wich  at  most  and  that  must  have  fallen  on  the 
buttered  side  sometime."  Such  bits  of  humor,  like 
his  poems,  lose  much  flavor  when  divorced  from 
the  context, — they  are  wholly  illustrative.  Lowell, 
who  in  his  later  essay,  denied  humor  to  Thoreau, 
in  the  earlier  review  instanced  "  the  passages  of  a 
genial  humor  interspersed  at  fit  intervals." 

On  many  of  Thoreau's  pages,  where  actual  wit 
and  humor  are  lacking,  there  exists  a  spiciness,  an 
aroma,  like  that  of  his  own  Walden  pines.  He 
combined  witty  insight  with  somewhat  of  perver 
sity  and  much  exaggeration.  The  result  was  a 
trenchant  piquancy.  His  confession  was  "  I  wish 
to  make  an  extreme  statement  that  so  I  may  make 
an  emphatic  one."  Again,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Blake, 
he  writes, — "  I  trust  that  you  realize  what  an  ex- 
aggerator  I  am, — that  I  lay  myself  out  to  exagger 
ate  whenever  I  have  an  opportunity, — pile  Pelion 


324     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

on  Ossa,  to  reach,  heaven  so."  This  was  another 
trait  which  he  shared  with  Carlyle.  One  must 
appreciate  this  underlying  element  in  many  of 
Thoreau's  statements,  or  he  will  miss  not  alone  the 
pithiness  but  often  the  meaning.  A  good  example 
of  extended  hyperbole  that  does  not  veil  the  real 
truth,  for  this  is  always  patent  to  a  reader  of  in 
sight,  is  the  record  given  by  him  in  1848,  for  his  class- 
book,  now  in  the  college  library  : — "  Am  not  married. 
I  don't  know  whether  mine  is  a  profession  or  a  trade, 
or  what  not.  It  is  not  yet  learned,  and  in  every 
instance  has  been  practised  before  being  studied. 
The  mercantile  part  of  it  was  begun  by  myself 
alone.  It  is  not  one  but  legion.  I  will  give  you 
some  of  the  monster's  heads.  I  am  a  Schoolmaster, 
a  private  Tutor,  a  Surveyor,  a  Gardener,  a  Farmer, 
a  Painter,  (I  mean  a  House  Painter)  a  Carpenter, 
a  Mason,  a  Day-laborer,  a  Pencil-maker,  a  Glass- 
paper-maker,  a  Writer,  and  sometimes,  a  Poetaster. 
If  you  will  act  the  part  of  lolus,  and  apply  a  hot 
iron  to  any  of  these  heads,  I  shall  be  greatly 
obliged  to  you.  My  present  occupation  is  to  an 
swer  such  orders  as  may  be  expected  from  so  gen 
eral  advertisement  as  the  above.  That  is,  if  I  see 
fit,  which  is  not  always  the  case,  for  I  have  found 
out  a  way  to  live  without  what  is  commonly  called 
employment  or  industry,  attractive  or  otherwise. 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      325 

Indeed,  my  steadiest  employment,  if  such  it  can  be 
called,  is  to  keep  myself  at  the  top  of  my  condi 
tion,  and  ready  for  whatever  may  turn  up  in 
heaven  or  on  the  earth.  The  last  two  or  three 
years  I  lived  in  Concord  woods  alone,  something 
more  than  a  mile  from  any  neighbor,  in  a  house 
built  entirely  by  myself. 

"  P.  S. — I  beg  that  the  class  will  not  consider  me 
an  object  of  charity,  and  if  any  of  them  are  in  want 
of  any  pecuniary  assistance  and  will  make  their 
case  known  to  me,  I  will  engage  to  give  them  some 
advice  of  more  worth  than  money." 

Paradox  became  a  favorite  rhetorical  aid  to 
achieve  these  trenchant  expressions.  "  I  love  man 
kind  but  I  hate  the  institutions  of  the  dead  unkind." 
After  a  rainy  day  they  "managed  to  keep  their 
thoughts  dry  and  only  the  clothes  were  wet." 
This  tendency  to  exaggeration  produced  not  alone 
an  incisive  humor,  but  also  a  strange  vehemence 
akin  to  that  of  Carlyle  and  Kuskin.  In  his  plea  for 
John  Brown,  he  arraigns  the  people  with  a  violent 
comparison, — "  You  Avho  pretend  to  care  for  Christ 
crucified,  consider  what  you  are  about  to  do  to  him 
who  offered  himself  to  be  the  Saviour  of  four  mil 
lions  of  men."  With  fearless  vigor  and  a  wit  which 
had  truly  become  acrid,  he  attacks  the  modern 
lethargic  Christian,  whose  prayers  begin  with 


326     THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

"  Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,"  and  who  is  always 
anticipating  "his  long  rest."  Such  comments, 
which,  of  necessity,  seem  extreme  and  unpardonable 
to-day,  were  called  forth  by  the  moral  apathy  of 
the  times  when  Thoreau  lived  and  wrote.  The 
formalism  and  narrowness  of  the  Puritan  religion 
seemed  to  Thoreau,  as  it  did  to  many  another  of  his 
time,  almost  cruel,  surely  unjust,  in  its  neglect  of 
free,  open-handed  service  to  the  poor  and  op 
pressed. 

The  extravagant,  philosophic  chapter  on 
"  Clothes  "  in  "  Walden  "  is  suggestive  of  the  satire 
and  the  serious  remonstrance  of  Teiifelsdrockh. 
With  forceful  prophecy,  again,  he  contrasts  true 
education,  which  regards  nature  as  fundamental 
and  attains  intelligent  thought,  with  a  forced  in 
struction  in  sundry  accomplishments,  or  hothouse 
branches.  In  the  essay  on  "  Walking  "  occurs  this 
denunciation,  couched  in  the  terse,  vigorous  senten 
ces  of  his  most  expulsive  style,—"  I  would  say  to 
the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge, 
sometimes, '  Go  to  grass.  You  have  eaten  hay  long 
enough.  The  spring  has  come  with  its  green  crop. 
The  very  cows  are  driven  to  their  country  pastures 
before  the  end  of  May ;  though  I  have  heard  of  one 
unnatural  farmer  who  kept  his  cow  in  the  barn  and 
fed  her  on  hay  all  the  year  round.'  So,  frequently, 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK     327 

the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge 
treats  its  cattle." 

Coexistent  with  this  extravagance  of  expression 
in  humor  or  in  arraignment,  which  gives  to  Tho- 
reau's  style  its  vital  magnetism,  was  an  unswerving 
sincerity  of  form,  no  less  than  of  purpose.  The 
exaggeration  was  always  bold  and  self-confessed,  a 
mark  of  his  ideality  and  his  earnest  aim  to  empha 
size  the  pivot  of  his  thought.  At  the  basis,  as  the 
motive-principle  in  his  life,  was  the  deep  sincerity 
without  which  his  character  and  his  writings  would 
be  nullified.  His  motto  was, — "  The  best  you  can 
write  will  be  the  best  you  are.  The  author's 
character  is  read  from  title-page  to  end.  Of  this  he 
never  corrects  the  proofs."  "Well  do  these  words 
apply  to  his  journals  and  letters.  The  earlier 
volumes,  which  seemed  to  show  "  the  perfect  Stoic," 
only  revealed  a  part  of  his  character, — his  non 
conformity  and  courage.  The  later  letters  and 
journal-pages  show  the  rounded  man,  in  his  gentle 
ness  as  well  as  his  independence,  in  his  cravings  of 
heart  and  soul  as  well  as  his  mental  strength  and 
social  indifference.  This  persistent  desire  to 
record  his  inner,  true  self,  to  deal  with  themes 
that  were  vital,  not  far-fetched,  led  to  great 
precision  and  care  in  the  formation  of  his  more 
important  sentences.  Mr.  Wendell  has  called 


328      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

this    trait    in     Thoreau    "a    loving    precision    of 
touch." 

Allied  with  humor,  force,  and  sincerity,  as  literary 
attributes,  was  a  scholarship  at  once  unique  and 
pervasive,  adapted  to  a  vast  array  of  themes. 
His  learning  was  deep  rather  than  broad,  but  it 
was  noted  for  aptness.  From  boyhood  he  read  with 
care,  always  supplied  with  "  fact-books."  While 
classics  of  all  literatures  were  familiar  to  him,  and 
modern  authors  found,  in  comparison,  scanty  favor, 
yet  it  is  a  mistake  to  assume  that  he  was  not 
acquainted  with  current  writers.  His  references 
show  knowledge  of  Wordsworth,  Tennyson,  Lan- 
dor,  Darwin,  Dickens,  De  Quincey,  Longfellow  and 
others.  He  recommends  Coventry  Patmore's 
poem,  "  The  Angel  in  the  House,"  then  attracting 
current  attention  in  England.  He  found  Kuskin, 
whom  he  read  extensively,  "  good  and  encouraging 
though  not  without  crudeness  and  bigotry."  His 
rare  knowledge  of  the  greater  and  lesser  poets  of 
Eome,  Greece  and  early  England,  his  intimacy 
with  the  naturalists  and  travelers  of  authority, 
merited  the  tribute  of  George  William  Curtis, — 
"  he  added  to  knowledge  of  nature  the  wisdom  of 
the  most  ancient  times  and  the  best  literatures." 
Many  of  his  thoughts  on  reading  are  as  pertinent 
and  quotable  as  those  of  Emerson, — "  Kead  the  best 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      329 

books  first,  or  you  may  not  have  a  chance  to  read 
them  at  all."  "Books  should  contain  pure  dis 
coveries,  glimpses  of  terra  firma,  though  by  ship 
wrecked  mariners,  and  not  the  art  of  navigation  by 
those  who  have  never  been  out  of  sight  of  land." 
Like  the  most  potent  literary  prophets  of  to-day  he 
urged  primal  study  of  the  great  books  of  the  past, 
the  human,  vital  world-books.  Again,  with  pre 
dictive  insight  he  made  a  strong  plea  for  the  study 
of  all  the  scriptures,  in  a  broad  sense,  the  ethics 
and  religion  of  Hebrews,  Hindoos,  Persians, 
Chinese;  to  him  these  were  of  as  great  interest 
as  they  are  to  the  modern  student  of  comparative 
religions. 

To  his  exhaustive  literary  fund,  he  added  a 
branch  of  research  that  was  distinctly  American. 
Interested  from  a  lad  in  Indian  customs,  he  made 
careful  study  of  the  race  on  his  excursions,  both 
from  the  standpoint  of  ethnology  and  sociology. 
Through  interchange  of  facts  with  his  famous 
guide,  Joe  Polis,  in  the  Maine  woods,  he  gained  an 
insight,  free  from  rhapsodic  sentiment.  He  well 
distinguished  their  mental  traits  from  those  of  the 
white  man ; — "  The  constitution  of  the  Indian  mind 
appears  to  be  the  very  opposite  of  the  white  man's. 
He  is  acquainted  with  a  different  side  of  nature. 
He  measures  his  life  by  winters,  not  summers.  His 


330      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

year  is  not  measured  by  the  sun,  but  consists  of  a 
certain  number  of  moons,  and  his  moons  are 
measured  not  by  days  but  by  nights.  He  has 
taken  hold  of  the  dark  side  of  nature,  the  white 
man  of  the  bright  side."  ("  Autumn,"  p.  148.)  Care 
fully  prepared  and  collated,  are  twelve  volumes  of 
notes  by  Thoreau  upon  Indian  archeology,  legends 
and  customs,  waiting  the  service  of  his  executor  to 
furnish  the  world  with  these  many  rare  facts  about 
this  indigenous  people. 

The  multiplicity  and  seeming  incoherence  of 
Thoreau's  themes  have  been  ground  of  criticism 
by  some  unappreciative  readers.  Herein  resides 
one  of  the  chief  qualities  of  uniqueness  and  charm. 
Nature  and  life  in  their  varied  phases,  especially  in 
their  homely  and  simple  aspects,  formed  his  sub 
jects  for  study  and  reflection.  As  if  in  answer  to 
this  very  point,  he  wrote, — "  It  is  wise  to  write  on 
many  themes,  that  so  you  may  find  the  right  and 
inspiring  one."  In  his  volumes  are  gathered  prac 
tical  economy,  morality,  philosophy,  upon  the 
lower  levels  of  thought,  while  on  the  hilltops  are 
the  poetic  and  sympathetic  vistas  and  songs.  From 
a  tirade  upon  the  defects  of  modern  newspapers,  he 
turns  to  a  description  of  the  morning  mist,  with 
matchless  imagery  ; — "  But  when  its  own  sun  began 
to  rise  on  this  pure  world,  I  found  myself  a  dweller 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      331 

in  the  dazzling  halls  of  Aurora,  into  which  poets 
have  had  but  a  partial  glance  over  the  eastern  hills, 
drifting  amid  the  saffron-colored  clouds,  and  play 
ing  with  the  rosy  fingers  of  the  Dawn,  in  the  very 
path  of  the  Sun's  chariot,  and  sprinkled  with  its 
dewy  dust,  enjoying  the  benignant  smile,  and  near 
at  hand  the  far-darting  glances  of  the  god."  The 
economist  urges  simplification  of  life  in  details  of 
food  and  clothing,  but  he  hearkens,  in  the  same 
moment,  to  the  bobolink's  song, — "  It  is  as  if  he 
touched  his  harp  within  a  vase  of  liquid  melody, 
and  when  he  lifted  it  out  the  notes  fell  like  bubbles 
from  the  trembling  strings." 

The  variety  of  themes,  often  linked  by  a  closer 
bond  than  many  casual  readers  perceive,  gives  to 
Thoreau's  style  a  diversity  as  marked  as  that  of  his 
interests.  He  is  always  cogent  and  forceful, 
whether  describing  lumber  or  bird-notes.  His 
paradoxes  and  symbolism  do  not  detract  from  his 
"  nutty  sentences."  He  was  sometimes  careless  as 
to  graceful  finish,  but  he  never  failed  to  emphasize 
the  vital  thought.  He  scorned  sentences  that 
"  contain  as  much  flowerliness  and  dainty  conceits 
as  a  milliner's  window,"  yet  he  was  master,  on 
occasion,  of  exquisite  diction  and  pictorial  illus 
tration.  He  commended  the  vigor  of  the  Bible, 
Homer,  Pliny,  Milton,  and  Kaleigh.  At  times, 


332      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

true  to  these  models,  his  own  style  is  direct  and 
potent,  as  in  description  of  his  first  night  in  the 
.woods  or  the  picture  of  the  moose-hunt.  Again, 
some  sentences  are  as  laconic  as  Carlyle  and  Emer 
son  ; — "  Say  the  thing  with  which  you  labor.  .  .  . 
Be  faithful  to  your  genius.  Write  in  the  strain 
which  interests  you  most.  Consult  not  the  popular 
taste."  If  he  had  the  courage  to  live  his  thoughts, 
he  also  had  the  persistency  and  sincerity  to  ex 
emplify  these  literary  precepts. 

In  contrast  with  such  passages  of  frank  direct 
ness  are  occasional  paragraphs  of  involved  mysti 
cism,  especially  in  the  later  volumes  unrevised  by 
his  own  hand.  In  the  main,  however,  his  symbolism 
and  imagery  are  vigorous,  often  commanding.  Such 
is  the  battle-array  of  the  red  maples  and  the  yellow 
birches,  included  in  "Autumn."  Among  his  more 
familiar  metaphors,  is  one  frequently  borrowed  by 
later  writers,  the  picture  of  Cape  Cod  with  her 
"bared  and  bended  arm,  boxing  with  northeast 
storms,  and  ever  and  anon,  heaving  up  her  adversary 
from  the  lap  of  the  earth, — ready  to  thrust  forward 
her  other  fist,  which  keeps  guard  the  while  upon 
her  breast  at  Cape  Ann." 

In  justice  both  to  Thoreau  and  Lowell  it  may  be 
pertinent  to  recall  a  few  words  from  the  closing 
paragraph  of  that  essay  in  "  My  Study  Windows," 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      333 

which  contains  so  many  clever  half-truths  and  has, 
unwittingly,  caused  much  injustice  to  the  memory 
of  Thoreau;  after  his  caustic  witticisms,  Lowell's 
sense  of  critical  justice  comes  to  redeem  his  omissions 
and  he  says  of  Thoreau's  writings, — "His  better 
style  as  a  writer  is  in  keeping  with  the  simplicity 
and  purity  of  his  life.  ...  He  had  caught  his 
English  at  its  living  source,  among  the  poets  and 
prose- writers  of  its  best  days;  his  literature  was 
extensive  and  recondite ;  his  quotations  are  always 
nuggets  of  the  purest  ore ;  there  are  sentences  of 
his  as  perfect  as  anything  in  the  language,  and 
thoughts  as  clearly  crystallized ;  his  images  and 
metaphors  are  always  fresh  from  the  soil."  Sure  it 
is,  that  few  American  authors,  upon  such  simple 
themes  often  called  commonplace  or  abstract,  can 
equal  the  romantic  and  brilliant  word-sketches,  the 
detailed  yet  interesting  facts  in  nature  and  life,  and 
the  eloquent,  vital  urgence  upon  themes  of  deep 
import,  which  are  so  fully  exarnpled  in  Thoreau's 
style. 

In  his  writings,  as  in  his  life,  he  must  be  regarded 
from  two  view-points.  He  lived  a  secluded  life  yet 
he  was  en  rapport  with  the  best  intellectuality  and 
ideals  of  his  age.  His  was  not  the  stellar  existence 
so  often  pictured,  nor  yet  did  he  urge  any  to  adopt 
the  restricted  program  of  activity,  which  was  his 


334      THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK 

preference  for  mental  and  spiritual  growth,  but 
from  which  he  often  emerged  to  mingle  in  broader 
affairs.  We  have  seen  the  man  in  Maine  woods 
and  in  Lyceum,  in  Walden  retirement  and  fronting 
the  crisis  of  the  Abolition  movement.  While  self- 
improvement  was  his  primal  aim,  one  must  not  for 
get  its  corollary, — "  I  believe  in  the  infinite  joy  and 
satisfaction  of  helping  myself  and  others  to  the  ex 
tent  of  my  ability."  Self-expansion  was  the  pre 
liminary  step  to  true  service.  He  mingled  rigid, 
elementary  simplicity  of  life  with  a  poetry  and 
idealism  wholly  unsurpassed.  So,  in  his  literature, 
his  themes  and  treatment  may  seem  egotistic  and 
constrained,  sometimes  trivial;  but  his  aims  are 
lofty,  his  conclusions  are  of  universal  import.  Few 
characters  offer  more  enticements  for  censure,  even 
for  caricature,  on  the  externals  of  presence  and  ac 
tions.  His  nature  was  too  complex  to  be  consistent 
in  every  iota  of  progress,  but  the  trend  was  unswerv 
ing  and  the  life-expression  was  consistent  in  all 
large  manifestations.  His  ideals  were  too  high  to 
adapt  themselves  to  the  restless  conditions  of  mod 
ern  life  but  they  suffered  neither  vacillation  nor 
compromise.  With  many  defects  of  temperament 
and  lack  of  amenities  and  graces  of  mien,  with 
flaws  of  prejudice  and  perversity  in  mental  as  well 
as  social  nature,  Thoreau  was  yet  one  of  the  large 


THOREAU'S  SERVICE  AND  RANK      335 

men  whose  powers  of  mind  and  soul  should  pre 
clude  undue  emphasis  of  minor  faults. 

He  lived  the  present  life  sincerely  and  intensely, 
in  the  light  of  the  future,  a  future,  to  his  vision, 
not  one  of  reward  so  much  as  of  soul-expansion. 
"Every  part  of  nature  teaches  that  the  passing 
away  of  one  life  is  the  making  room  for  another." 
In  the  final  analysis,  his  life-purpose  was  fealty  to 
nature;  other  subjects  were  correlated,  symbolic, 
or  contrasting  issues  from  this  great  interest. 
Noting  with  delight  a  little  hillside  stream  at  Hull, 
he  wrote,  in  "  Cape  Cod,"  the  simple  yet  significant 
confession,— "  If  I  should  go  to  Kome,  perhaps  it 
would  be  some  spring  in  the  Capitoline  Hill  I 
should  remember  the  longest."  In  his  diverse,  po 
tent  nature-interpretation,  in  his  uplifting  ideals, 
towards  which  he  strove  with  patience  and  prog 
ress,  in  his  literary  uniqueness  and  pictorial  magnet 
ism,  Thoreau  is  a  solitary  figure,  yet  a  pregnant 
inspiration,  in  American  history  and  literature. 


Index 


"A  FABLE  FOR  CKITICS,"  239. 

"A  Winter  Walk,"  quoted,  190. 

Abbott,  Dr.  Charles  C.,  137,  287, 
299. 

Abbotsford,  5. 

Abolition,  160,  162,  165,  334. 

Academy  Lane,  49. 

Acton,  37,  225. 

Adams,  John,  34. 

Addison,  Joseph,  249. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  69,  282,  283,  285. 

Agellum,  Walden,  136. 

"  Agricultural  Survey  in  Massa 
chusetts,"  241. 

Albee,  John,  92. 

Alcott,  Bronson,  4,  5,  6,  15,  17, 
32,  94,  109,  110,  117,  119,  129, 
131,  149,  152,  161,  166,  176, 
179,  194,  201,  236,  249,  257, 
302,  306,  308. 

Alcott,  Mrs.  Bronson,  19,  20,  112. 

Alcott,  Louisa,  17,  20,  111,  237, 
315. 

Allen,  Irving,  41. 

Allen,  Phineas,  59. 

Altruism,  197,  199,  222,  334. 

American  Anthology,  97,  209, 
316. 

Amiel,  Henri,  303. 

Anacreon,  276. 

Angler,  8. 

Antaeus,  125. 

Anti-slavery,  16,  39,  164,  196, 
228. 

"Apollo  serving  Admetus,''  98, 
157. 

Arcadian  life,  11,  289. 

Aristotle,  217,  284. 


j  Arnica  mollis,  173. 
|  Art  and  Nature,  288. 

Art  of  living,  183,  204. 

Assabet  river,  7. 

Atheneum,  15. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  153,  155,  208, 
285,  307. 

Attic  philosophy,  32. 

Augustine,  Saint,  303. 

"Autumn,"  154,  213,  225,  256, 
270,  330,  332. 

"  Autumnal  Tints,"  153,  307. 

|  "  BALAUSTION,  "  quoted,  98. 

Balzac,  320. 

Bancroft,  George,  18,  70. 
;  "Barnum,  Yankee,"  32. 
j  Barrett's  Mill,  271. 
!  Bartlett,  George  E.,  319. 
|  Bartol,  Cyrus  A.,  109. 
|  Bateman's  Pond,  8. 

"Beans,"  124,  152. 
j  Bentham,  Jeremy,  73. 
!  Bible,  The,  321,  331. 
!  Biography,  Modern,  103. 

Blake,  Francis,  254. 

Blake,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  151T 
172,  209,  253-257,  276,  304, 
310,  312,  323. 

Boscawen,  N.  H.,  41. 

Boston,  Mass.,  11,  34,  36,  37,  56, 
108,  149,  164,  167,  168,  169, 
199,  246,  254,  282. 

Boston  Miscellany,  96. 

Boston  Transcript,  34. 

Bradford,  George,  44. 

Brantwood,  5. 

Brisbane,  Albert,  110. 


337 


338 


INDEX 


Blister's  Hill,  10. 

Brook  Farm,    44,   72,    109,   241, 

289. 

Brown,  Charles  Brockden,  301. 
Brown,  John,  1.4,  15,  56,  166-168, 

174,  199,  225,  325. 
Brown,   Mrs.   Lucy,  47,  94,  234, 

235. 

Brown,  Theophilus,  151,  254. 
Browning,    Robert,    quoted,    98, 

143,  209. 
Brownson,   Orestes,   72,    73,   109, 

194. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  300. 
Buddhism,  312. 
Bulkeley,  Peter,  13. 
Burns,  Anthony,  166. 
Burns,  Jane,  34. 
Burroughs,    John,    86,    166,  212, 

286,  287,  298,  299,  322. 
Buttrick,  Major,  14. 


CABOT,  J.  ELLIOT,  146,  282. 

Cagliostro,  32. 

Cairn,  4,  10. 

Canada,  148,  225,  280,  322. 

Canton,  Mass.,  72. 

"Cape  Cod,"  148,  280,  311,320- 
323,  332,  335. 

Capitoline  Hill,  335. 

Carlisle  Road,  9,  136. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  70,  71,  93,  105, 
106,  144,  148,  195,  201,  210, 
227,  229,  307,  308,  313,  324, 
332 

Cato,  44,  242. 

"Ceresco  settlement,"  110. 

Channing,  Edward,  67,  70. 

Channing,  Ellery  William,  20, 
57,  60,  97,  114,  115,  127,  131, 
133,  137,  147,  173,  179,  194, 
200,  219,  223,  238-240,  242, 
252,  261,  312. 

Channing,  Rev.  William  Ellery, 
105,  239. 

Chapman,  Frank  M.,  287. 

Chelmsford,  37,  56. 

Chesuncock,  208. 


Cholmondeley,  Thomas,  251. 
Christian  Examiner  The,  74. 
"Civil  Disobedience,"  161,  162. 
Clarke,  James  F.,  109. 
Class-book,  59,  324,  325. 
Clintonia  borealis,  276. 
Clough,  Arthur  Hugh,  251. 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,    105,  108,    194, 

303. 

Collins  family,  320. 
Communism,  112,  113. 
College  education,  65,  66. 
Concord,   Mass.,    3-27,    55,    164, 

165,  168,  228,  280,  289. 
Concord  Academy,  49,  59,  81,  91. 
Concord  Antiquarian  Hall,  120. 
Concord  Junction,  37. 
Concord  Lyceum,  148,  149. 
Concord  Public  Library,  25,  37. 
Concord  newspapers,  49,  58,  282. 
Concord  River,  3,  4,  7,  147,  242, 

313 

"Concord  sage,"  47. 
Congress,  Provincial,  14. 
Conway,  Moncure  D.,  282. 
Cooper,  James  F.,  299. 
Copse  Hill,  123. 
"  Cornwallis  Days,"  56. 
Crab,  Roger,  104. 
Crimean  War,  251. 
4 'Crow,  The  "279. 
Curtis,  George  W.,  119,  241,  252, 

328. 

DANA,  RICHARD  HENRY,  73. 

Darwin,  Charles,  328. 

Davis,  Rebecca  H.,  230. 

Deist,  208. 

Democratic  Review,  307. 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  212,  328. 

Dial.    The,  86,   93,  94,  110,  144, 

241,    243,    246,    277,  307,  313, 

316. 

Dickens,  Charles,  328. 
Diogenes,  32,  103,  123. 
Donatello,  223. 
Donne,  John,  70. 
Dred  Scott  case,  164. 
Dunbar,  Charles,  41. 


INDEX 


339 


Dunbar,  David,  41. 

Dun  bar  family,  40,  58,  130,  172. 

Dunbar,  Louisa,  41. 

EAGLESWOOD,  149. 

"Early  Spring  in  Mass.,"  221, 
255. 

Easterbrook  Country,  9. 

"Echoes  from  Harper's  Ferry," 
168. 

Elective  system,  192. 

Elliott,  Rev.  Walter,  44. 

Emancipation  song,  17. 

Emerson,  Edward,  94,  124,  233. 

Emerson,  Madam,  19,  201. 

Emerson,  Mary,  21,  22. 

Emerson,  Mrs.  Lidian,  19,  112, 
231,  232. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  4,  15, 
16-18,  25,  47,  48,  67,  70,  75,  86, 
93,  97,  106,  109,  112,  116,  129, 
131,  145,  149,  150,  160.  164, 
167,  168,  172,  179,  186,  194, 
195,  199,  201,  206,  223-230, 
236,  239,  241,  246,  251,  253, 
254,  257,  271,  277,  281,  283, 
297,  299,  300,  302,  308,  312, 
313,  314,  319,  328,  332. 

Emerson,  Waldo,  48,  93,  95. 

Emerson,  William,  95. 

Emersonian  Maxim,  5. 

Emerson's  "Threnody,"  48. 

Essays,  307. 

Essenes,  104. 

Euripides,  98. 

Everett,  Edward,  18. 

Excursions,  147,  148,  173,  311. 

FAIRHAVEN,  9,  47,  51. 
"Familiar  Letters,"  13,    39,  46, 

146,   218,  231,   233,    235,   245, 

253,  282,  317. 
Field,  John,  320. 
Fields,  James  T.,  307. 
Fire  Island,  247. 
Fitchburg,  Mass.,  149. 
Flint's  Pond,  8,  114,  125. 
Fourierian  settlements,  108,  110. 
Foster,  Mrs.  Abigail,  149. 


Framingham,  Mass.,  11. 

Freneau,  Philip,  301. 

Friendship,  Essay  on,  195. 

Froude,  James  A.,  317. 

"  Fruitlands, "  111. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  166. 

Fuller,  Ellen,  (Mrs.  Ellery 
Channing),  20  ;  Margaret,  20, 
109,  110,  114,  230,  246  ;  Rich 
ard,  247. 

GARKISON,  WILLIAM  L.,  18,  149, 

164. 

Gerard,  John,  268,  284. 
Gibson,  William  Hamilton,  287. 
Godwin,  William,  73,  108. 
Goethe,  70,  309. 
Goose  Pond,  8. 
Gower,  John,  70. 
Graham's    Magazine,     144,    245, 

307. 
Greeley,    Horace,    96,   108,    147, 

245,  307. 
Greene,  Calvin,  178,  222,  252. 

HALE,  EDWARD  E.,  67,  68,  69. 
Harvard  College,  23,   59,   65-69, 

254,  279,  283,  324. 
Harvard  Magazine,  190. 
Harvardiana,  69. 
Haskins,  David,  224. 
Hawthorne,   Nathaniel,   4,   5,   6, 

17,  57,  96,  109,   165,  223,  241- 

243,  299,  300,  302. 
Hawthorne,  Sophia,  20. 
Hayne,  Paul  H.,  123. 
Heber,  Bishop,  251. 
Hecker,  Isaac,  44. 
Hedge,  Frederick  H.,  109. 
Hegel,  Georg,  108. 
Herr  Driesbach,  19. 
Hibiscus  moscJieutos,  84,  273,  282. 
Higginson,  S.  S.,  189,  190. 
Higginson,  Thomas  W.,  132,  149. 
Highland  Lighthouse,  202. 
Hillside,  The,  117. 
Hindoo  literature,  251. 
Hoar,    Edward,     173,    175,    244, 

245. 
Hoar,  Elizabeth,  20,  244. 


340 


INDEX 


Hoar,  George  F.,  18,  81,  118. 

Hoar,  Judge  Samuel,  149,  302. 

Hollowell  Farm,  115. 

Homer,  331. 

Hopedale,  110. 

Hopewell,  14. 

Hosmer,  Edmund,  20,   119,  129, 

241,  242. 

Hosmer,  Jane,  129. 
Hosmer,  Joseph,  56,  133,  188. 
Hotham,  Edmund  S.,  137. 
Hutchinsons,  The,  17. 
Hyperbole,  323,  324. 

"IDYLLS  OF  THE  KING,  "  quoted, 

273. 

Igdrasil,  130. 
Imagery,  332. 
"In  Memoriam,"  95. 
Independent,  The,  42. 
Indian  lore,  14,  50,  57,  117,  147, 

171,  175,  312,  329. 
Individualism,  195-198,  211,  229, 

309. 

loins,  324. 
Irving,  Washington,  5,  299. 

JAMES,  HENKY,  SB.,  96,  230. 
Japp,  A.  H.,  104,  223. 
Jarvis,  Dr.  Edward,  79. 
Jefferies,  Richard,  202,  285. 
Jersey,  Isle  of,  33,  34. 
Jethro's  Oak,  13. 
Joe  Polis,  329. 
John  the  Baptist,  104. 
Jones  family,  41. 
Jones,  Dr.  S.  A.,  253,  306,  317. 
Journals,  quoted,  22,  34,  43,  78, 
156,  226,  275,  279,  301-306. 

KANE,  ELISHA  K,  274. 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  164. 
Kant,  Emanuel,  105,  108,  194. 
Kempis,  Thomas  &,  303. 
Kettell,  Rebecca,  35. 
"Knights  of  the  Umbrella  and 

the  Bundle,"  148. 
"  Ktaadn  and  the  Maine  Woods," 

147. 


LAXDOE,  WALTER  S. ,  328. 

Lane,  Charles,  110,  111,  161,  194. 

Lanier,  Sidney,  271. 

Lassalle,  Ferdinand,  108. 

Laurel  Glen,  9. 

"Leaves  of  Grass,"  251,  311. 

Ledum  latifolium,  263. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  212. 

Lincoln,  Mass.,  9,  71,  114. 

Linnaeus,  Carolus,  284. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  67,  328. 

Loring's  Lead  Works,  37,  38. 

Lovejoy,  abolitionist,  167. 

Lowell,  James  R.,  67,  68,  125, 
135,  150,  157,  172,  208,  223, 
239,  299,  307,  308,  312,  323, 
332,  333. 

"  Lowell  and  his  Friends,"  67. 

Lowell,  Mass.,  11. 

Lowell  Road,  13. 

Luther,  Martin,  303. 

Lyceum,  15,  16,  148,  149. 

MABIE,  HAMILTON  W.,  287. 
"Maine  Woods,"  147,  173,208, 

265,   269,    275,  307,   311,   329, 

334. 

Mann,  Horace,  Jr.,  175. 
"  Margaret,"  318. 
"Margaret  Sidney,"  7. 
Marlborough  Road,  9. 
Mass.    Natural   History  Society, 

285. 

Massachusetts  Quarterly,  157,  312. 
Meander,  276. 
Merriinack  River,  242. 
Mexican  War,  160. 
Milford,  N.  H.,  254. 
Miller,  Olive  Thome,  287. 
Milton,  John,  70,  331. 
Minnesota,  175. 
Minott,  Jonas,  40. 
Missouri  Compromise,  196. 
Monadnock,  8,  174. 
Montaigne,  303. 
More,  Paul  E.,  291. 
Morris,  William,  200. 
Muuroe,  William,  37. 
Music,  314. 


INDEX 


341 


Musketaquid,  7,  8,  57,  278. 
11  My  Study  Windows,"  208,  223, 
332,  333. 

NANTUCKET,  247. 

Nature,  26,  188,   189,    288,    289, 

292,  330. 

Nauset  woman,  321. 
Nawshawtuck,  8. 
4 'Near  Home, "240. 
"Nemesis  of  Faith,"  317. 
New  Bedford,  149,  175,  189,  247, 

248. 
New  England,  24,  105,  118,  164, 

289. 

"  New  England  Boyhood,  A,"  67. 
New  England  Magazine,  111. 
New  Zealand,  251. 
Nine  Acre  Corner,  9,  115. 
North  Bridge,  14. 
Northampton,  Mass.,  110. 
Norton,  Sr.,  Prof.,  254. 
"  Nollifier  of  civilization,"  193. 

OLD  MANSE,  THE,  6,  21,  240,  242. 

Oneida  Community,  108. 

Orchard  House,  The,  4,  6. 

Orchis,  274. 

Oriel  College,  251. 

Orpheus,  13. 

Orreck,  Sarah,  35. 

Ossoli,  Margaret  Fuller,  246. 

Outlook,  Tlie,  43,  54. 

Owen,  Robert,  73,  108. 

PAN,  270,  315. 
Pantheist,  208,  269. 
Parker,  Theodore,  164. 
Parkman  House,  49,  78,  80. 
Patmore,  Coventry,  328. 
Pencil-manufacture,  37,  38,  157. 
Perth  Amboy,  149. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  17, 18,  42, 164, 

168. 

Pillsbury,  Parker,  176. 
Puns,  323. 

Platonic  philosophy,  236. 
Pliny,  284,  331. 
Plumbago,  37,  38,  54,  156. 


Plymouth,  Mass.,  148,  234. 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  212. 
Poet-naturalist,  25,  98,  261. 
Polygonum,  274. 
Ponkawtasset,  240. 
"Poor  Richard,"  303. 
Pratt,  Minott,  273, 
Providence,  R.  I.,  149. 
Provincial  Congress,  14. 
Puritan  traits,  55. 
Putnam's  Magazine,  148,  245,  307. 

QUAKER  TKAITS,  34,  35,  38,  55. 
Quincy,  President  Josiah,  59,  67, 

75,  79. 

"RABBI  BEN  EZRA,"  143. 
Raleigh,  Walter,  169,  331. 
"Recent  Rambles,"  137. 
Redpath,  James,  168. 
Ricardo,  David,  72. 
Richardson,  James,  76. 
Ricketson,   Daniel,    39,    42,    174, 

175,  187,  189,  247-250,  252. 
Ricketson,  Walton,  175,  247. 
Ridge  Path,  4. 

Ripley,  Rev.  Ezra,  6,  56,  107. 
Robinson,  Rowland,  286. 
Rochester,  Michigan,  252. 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  194. 
Roxbury,Mass.,  45,  46,  49,  53. 
Russell,  Prof.  E.  Harlow  IV,  156 

240,  256 

Russell,  Mary,  89. 
Ruskin,  John,   5,   107,  191,  200, 

202,  204,  325,  328. 
Rydal  Mount,  5. 

SAINT  FRANCIS,  262. 

Saint  George's  Guild,  107,  289. 

Saint  Heliers,  33,  34. 

"Saint  Vitus's  Dance,"  200. 

Salem,  Mass.,  149. 

Salem  Mechanics'  Fair,  37. 

Salt,  Henry  III.,  138,  193,  269, 

270,  290,  307. 
Sanborn,  F.   B.,  13,  15,  22,   39, 

40,  45,  75,  166,  231,  245,  290. 
Sartain's  Magazine,  147. 


342 


INDEX 


"  Saunterer's  Apple,"  156. 
Say,  Jean,  72. 

Scandinavian  myths,  33,  130. 
Schelling,  Friedrich,  108. 
Schiller,  Friedrich,  169. 
Scientists,  Modern,  283,  284. 
Scotch  ancestry,  38,  55,  185. 
Scott,  Walter,  5. 
Scribner's  Magazine,  230. 
Self -Reliance,  Essay  on,  195. 
Seton-Thompson,  Ernest,  284. 
"Sesame    and    Lilies,"   quoted, 

204. 

" Sic  Vita,"  179,  235,  313. 
Shaw,  Robert,  168. 
Simms,  the  slave,  166. 
"Simplifierof  civilization,"  193, 

203,  204,  205. 
Simeon  Stylites,  32. 
Slavery,  14,  164. 
Sleepy  Hollow,  48. 
Smith,  Adam,  72. 
"Smoke,  "316. 
Snakes,  Incident  of,  271,  272. 
"Social  Circle,"  18. 
Southey,  Robert,  108. 
Sparks.  Jared,  70. 
Spectator,  The,  39. 
Spencer,  Mass.,  84. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  70. 
Spring,  Marcus,  149. 
Staples,  Samuel,  161. 
State  tax,  160. 
Staten  Island,  95,  110,  144,  232, 

243,  244,  280. 
Stedman,   Edmund   C.,  97,   209, 

316. 

Stevenson,  Robert  L.,  196,  210. 
Stowe,  Harriet  B.,  198. 
"Summer,"  255,  306. 
Sumner,  Charles,  164. 
Sunnyside,  5. 

Swift,  Lindsay,  72,  110.  241. 
"Sympathy,"  poem,  86. 


TACITUS,  169. 
Tahattawan,  13. 
Taunton,  Mass.,  45. 


Tax-episode,  160,  163,  228. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  70,  169,  273, 
312,  328. 

Tetifelsdrockh,  326. 

Texas  House,  98.  99,  156. 

"  The  Angel  in  the  House,"  328. 

"  The  Blue  Heron,"  286. 

"  The  Convert, "  73. 

"The  Departure, "234. 

"The  Fisher's  Boy,"  97. 

"The  Raven,"  212. 

"The  Respectable  Folks,"  289. 
290. 

"The Soul's  Errand,"  169. 

"TheSun-Bath,"  266. 

"The  Wanderer,"  133,  137,  174. 
240. 

"The  Yankee  in  Canada,"  307, 
322,  323. 

Thompson,  Maurice,  286. 

Thor,  Thorer,  33,  130. 

Thoreau,  Helen.  45-49,  156,  225, 
234,  265.  301. 

Thoreau,  Henry  D.,  birth  and 
early  life,  3,  4,  55-61  ;  college 
life,  65-76  ;  romance,  85-90  ; 
years  of  mature  life  and  in 
fluence,  143-170 ;  as  author, 
146,  147,  192,  312-317,  321- 
329,  331,  332  ;  as  naturalist,  10, 
26, 147,  261-287  ;  aapMlosopher 
ami  reformer,  160-KJ6,  171,  15)2, 
(19^214.  287-2J9;>as  teacher 
aM~lecturer,  78^148,  157-159, 
254  ;  at  Walden,  103-120,  136, 
143,  188,  193,  195,  264,  310, 
312.  318,  334;  years  of  ill 
ness,  171,  175,  178,  179,  220. 

Thoreau,  John  I,  33,  34. 

Thoreau,  John  II  (father  of 
Henry),  34,  35,  36,  38,  39,  40, 
156,  252. 

Thoreau,  John  III  (brother  of 
Henry),  45.  48,  52,  82.  87,  94, 
236,  239,  261,  272. 

Thoreau,  Maria,  35,  38,  161. 

Thoreau.  Mrs.  John  (mother  of 
Henry).  21,  22,  40-44,  82,  177. 

Thoreau,  Peter,  34. 


INDEX 


343 


Thoreau,   Sophia,  42,  46,  52-55, 

226,  247. 
Thoreau's  character,  31,  32,  185- 

190,    193,  195,   201,  202,   206- 

209,  211,   218,    220,    227,   229, 

231-233,  327,  334,  335. 
Thoreau 's  critics,  31,  32. 
"Thoreau's  Dance,"  189. 
"Thoreau's  Flute,"  315. 
Thoreau' s  Friends,  217-257. 
"Thoughts"  from  Thoreau,  256. 
Ticknor,  George,  67.  70. 
"To  the  Maiden  in  the  East, "  89, 

90,  312,  313. 

Torrey,  Bradford,  262,  287. 
Transcendental  Club,  109. 
Transcendentalism,  15,  32,  72,  89, 

105,   106,   122,   188,   194,    220, 

284,  290. 

Treat,  Samuel,  74. 
Tristram,  104. 
Tuckerman's  Ravine,  173. 
Tusser,  Thomas,  284. 

"ULALUME,"  212. 
"  Ultima  Thule,"  251. 
Underground  railway,  15,  132. 
Unitarian  Church,  14. 
Unitarianism,  15,  105. 
"Unpublished  Letters  of  Henry 

and  Sophia  Thoreau,"  317. 
University,  23. 

VAKRO,  242. 
Virginia  Road,  55,  56. 
Vose,  Henry,  74,  79. 

WA.CHUSETT,  MOUNT,  8,  96. 

Walden,  4,  10,  47,  89,  116,  117, 
271,  323. 

Walden  lodge,  52,  119,  184,  201, 
203,  240,  241. 

"Walden,"  the  volume,  11,  12. 
23,  24,  71,  113,  115,  119,  128, 
132,  138,  158,  159,  161,  200, 
206,  209,  237.  240.  247,  253, 
261.311,312,  318-320,326. 

Walden,  the  experiment,  103-120, 


138,    143,  188,    193,   195,   196, 
264,  310,  312,  318,  324. 

Waldstein,  Charles,  191. 

"Walking,"  essay  and  lecture, 
153,  270,  285,  314. 

Waller,  Edmund,  249. 

Walton,  Izaak,  278.  284. 

Ward,  Prudence,  84. 

Washington,  George,  186. 

WTatson,  Mrs.  Marston,  89,  149. 

Webster,  Daniel,  18,  20. 

' '  Week,  A,  on  the  Concord  and 
Merrimack  Rivers,  "50,  83,  84, 
89,  127,  157,  201,  217,  264, 
266,  297,  309,  311-317. 

Weiss,  John,  74,  75,  109. 

Wellfleet  Oyster-man,  321. 

Wendell,  Barrett,  298,  327. 

"Western  correspondent,"  252. 

Whelaii,  Hugh,  136. 

Wheeler,  Charles  Stearns,  71,  74, 
114. 

White,  Gilbert,  278. 

White  Mountains,  173,  280. 

White  Pond,  8. 

Whitman,  Walt,  252,  266,  310. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  19,  209. 

"Wild  Apples,"  essay  and  lec 
ture,  155,  285,  307. 

Wildness,  264,  265. 

"Winter  Walk,  A,"  quoted,  190. 

Woden,  130. 

"Woodnotes."  281. 

Worcester.  Mass.,  151,   152,  169, 

170,  254,  256. 
Worcester,  JEgis,  152. 
Worcester  Spy,  170. 

World-books,  329. 

World-scriptures,  329. 

Wordsworth,  William,  5,  121, 
169,  328. 

YELLOW  HOUSE,  THE,  6, 156. 
Young,  Ed  ward,  206. 

ZENDA,  118. 
Zilpha,  118. 


N 


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